396 Messrs. C. A. Ballance and S. G. Shattock. 



The tumour tissue was transferred to the body of the animal in 

 from a half to one and a half hour after removal. In the interval it 

 was kept at 100 F., so that its component elements probably main- 

 tained their vitality practically unimpaired. 



In all cases a small piece of the tumour was placed immediately 

 after the transplantation in Miiller's fluid, and subsequently prepared 

 for microscopical examination. In some of the experiments the 

 tumour was large enough to allow also of a small piece or pieces being 

 incubated on blood serum. These were afterwards examined with 

 high powers of the microscope if they remained sterile. 



The discovery of the nuclear particles to which we have ventured 

 to give provisionally the name of cancer sperm or carcinozoa, made us 

 anxious to " graft " with pieces of cancer in which this peculiar 

 nuclear state had been induced. This was done without allowing the 

 selected pieces of cancer to cool below blood heat from the time of 

 their removal from the patient to their lodgment in the body of an 

 animal. 



So far all the experiments have yielded negative results ; but the 

 life history of cancer is so long, that we think, until the animals have 

 survived for at least two years subsequent to the transplantation, it 

 is impossible to know whether they have been infected or not. That 

 this view is tenable and not improbable, is supported by the instances 

 of those diseases, such as actino-mycosis, in which there is no sign of 

 infection at the inoculated spot until very many months have elapsed. 

 In making this statement, we are cognisant of the experiments in 

 which carcinoma is said to have been transferred from one animal to 

 another of the same species ; e.g., Hanau, of Zurich,* transferred 

 squamous carcinoma from one rat to another, the inoculated animal 

 dying within three months of the disease. 



All our results up to the present time, with human cancer as far 

 as infection is concerned, have been negative. In those animals 

 that have died, the lump of tumour, if small, has been nearly or 

 quite absorbed, or, if large, an ordinary inflammatory capsule has 

 been found surrounding it, and the tumour tissue itself apparently in 

 a state similar to that known as anaemic necrosis. 



We preferred the experiments to be of the character of trans- 

 plantations rather than of inoculations. It appeared that by the 

 method adopted there could be no doubt that living cancerous cells 

 in large numbers were grafted into the animal experimented upon. 

 We have avoided injections into veins, and other doubtful methods, 

 as likely to lead to erroneous conclusions. 



* 'Centralblatt fiir Chirurgie,' No. 42. Dr. Hanau, being in London at the end of 

 March (1890), was kind enough to show us the photographs and microscopical pre- 

 parations from the rat he had infected, together with sections of the original 

 tumour. 



