PATHOLOGY. 305 



tion with wounds in which the pecuKar product is found. It 

 is not an uncommon occurrence for the material known as 

 ' kunkur ' to be met with in internal organs at autopsy of 

 animals, which, though under trustworthy medical super- 

 vision during life, had given no indications of the disease. 

 It is essentially characteristic of bursattee wounds, or, more 

 properly, ulcers, that, after removal by surgical operation, 

 though cicatrization takes place, there is undoubted disposi- 

 tion to recurrence ; but if the excision has been thorough, and 

 the healing process favourable, a season usually elapses before 

 we have further evidence in loco. 



The subjects of the disease may be rendered useless in a 

 variety of ways (see Symptoms) so that the condition must be 

 regarded as a serious one. 



Pathology. — As we before hinted, some mystery seems still 

 to shroud the true nature of bursattee, with the natural con- 

 sequence of much divergence of opinion. To explain the 

 phenomena involved many theories have been promulgated, 

 and man}' views advanced, in several of which, rather than one 

 alone, there appears to be some progress towards placing 

 matters in their proper light. 



Early in the literature of the subject there is mooted an 

 idea of its cancerous nature and close resemblance to epithe- 

 lioma. This view has been fostered and enlarged upon by 

 more recent observers, some of whom assert the growth to be 

 cancer, and claim for it an intimate relation with epithelial 

 cancer. Reasoning from some anatomical and pathological 

 characters, and assuming the correctness of the fundamental 

 premises of the latter, there would seem in many points a 

 striking analogy. 



The general clinical features exhibited by cancer (though 

 Avhat is described as epithelial can scarcely be deemed a 

 ' typical cancer ') are in some degree absent in bursattee ; for 

 though 'kunkurs' have been found very rarely in lymph-glands, 

 I have not met with a satisfactory recorded instance of the 

 secondary affection of lymphatic structures. One of the 

 earliest observers, who quoted from an extensive experience, 

 emphatically states we have no true gland-implication. While, 

 referring to epithelial cancer. Sir James Paget says: 'The 

 lymphatic glands in anatomical relation with epithelial cancer 



20 



