PATHOLOGICAL CALCIFICATION 441 



been hemorrhages, especially in the vicinity of elastic tissue, th(!re 

 occur actual "calcium-iron" incrustations." S. Ehrlich^ states that 

 elastic fibers in the vicinity of hemorrhages take up the iron-contain- 

 ing derivative of the blood-pigment, and this acts as a mordant for 

 subsequent calcium deposition. Analysis of similar deposits in a 

 syphilitic spleen by Gettler^" showed the presence of large amounts of 

 silicates as well as calcium and iron. Potassium was much less than 

 in normal spleen tissue. The presence of iron in normal ossification 

 is supported by Sumita'^ and Eliasscheff.*^ In the so-called iron-lime 

 lung Gigon** found but a trace of calcium and much sodium and 

 potassium. 



Structure of Calcified Areas. — As before mentioned, in calcifi- 

 cation there is not the same uniform infiltration of the ground sub- 

 stance with lime salts that occurs in bone, yet the calcified area is 

 possessed of a ground substance of organic material which does not 

 dissolve in weak acids that remove the salts. There is no definite ratio 

 between the lime salts and this albuminoid matrix, however. At 

 first the salts occur in granules, which may become fused to a greater 

 or less degree. It has been thought by some that the deposition occurs 

 in the form of "calcospherites." 



These are small calcareous bodies, usually of concentric structure, which were 

 first described by Harting. They appear to occur widely distributed in normal 

 tissues, both animal and plant, and seem to be the result of the formation of 

 insoluble calcium salts in the presence of colloidal substances, just as urinary 

 and other concretions are formed about an organic nucleus. If calcium chloride 

 and soluble carbonates are allowed to combine very slowly to form calcium car- 

 bonate in a solution of egg-albumen, these or indistinguishable bodies are formed, 

 which on being dissolved are found to possess an organic stroma that exhibits a 

 marked affinity for any pigmentary substance that may be present. Apparently, 

 when the proper concentration exists, the salts in crj'stallizing hold between the 

 crystals the albuminous substances by which they are surrounded. Dastre and 

 Morat believe that the substratum is lecithin, which others have found occupying 

 a similar place in prostatic concretions. Calcospherites have been found in tumors, 

 in cystic cavities, and in bodies with beginning decomposition. It may be men- 

 tioned in passing that Littlejohn'^ observed the abundant formation of calcium 

 phosphate crystals in bodies that had been immersed for some time in sea water. 

 Oliver has found calcospherites in the tissues of a cancer of the breast. Pettit'^ 

 found calcospherites in a sarcoma of the maxilla, presenting insensible transi- 

 tions into the substance of the osseous tissue, and he suggests the possibility that 

 the calcospherite formation may be related to the formation of bone. It seems, 

 however, that they are probably more closely related to the formation of the 

 shells of invertebrates, which are largely composed of carbonates in crystalline 

 structure with an organic ground substance between them, and very little phos- 

 phate indeed. 



« See Gigon, Ziegler's Beitr., 1912 (55), 46; Sprunt, Jour. Exp. Med., 1911 

 (14), 59; Klotz, Johns Hop. Hosp. Bull.; 1916 (27), 363. 

 " Cent. f. Pathol., 1906 (17), 177. 



'» Symmers, Gettler, Johnson, Surg., Gyn. Obst., 1919, (28), 58. 

 " Virchow's Arch., 1910 (200), 220. 

 12 Ziegler's Beitr., 1911 (50), 143. 

 >3 Edinburgh Med. Jour., 1903 (13), 127. 

 1* Arch. d. Anat. Micros., 1897 (1), 107. 



