BENIGN TUMORS 517 



is marked, the amount of calcium is greatly increased. Krawkow^^ 

 found a trace of chondroitin-sulphuric acifl in a uterine fibroid. Lu- 

 barsch found glycogen occasionally in richly cellular uterine leio- 

 mj'omas, and in the vicinity of dcgonorating areas; however, 76 out 

 of 85 showed no glycogen. Pfannensticl''* analyzed the alkaline fluid 

 of a cystic fibromyoma, which coagulated spontaneously; it contained 

 sugar, but no mucin or pseudomucin. The cysts were dilated lymph- 

 spaces, and the fluid corresponded to lymph in composition. A similar 

 result was obtained by Oerum,^'-* who found in the fluid scrum- 

 albumin, serum-globuhn, and 0.358 per cent, of fibrin; the total pro- 

 teins constituted 6.3056 per cent. Sollmann^" found in the "colloid" 

 of a cystic degenerated fibromyoma both pseudomucin and paramucin 

 (see "Ovarian Cysts"), which differed somewhat from the same sub- 

 stances found in ovarian tumors. 



The, common occurrence of marked cardiac weakness in patients 

 with uterine fibroids has led to the suggestion that in the fibroids some 

 toxic product is formed which acts on the heart, or that both the fibroid 

 and the heart defect might result from a common cause. The experi- 

 mental evidence concerning the relationship is not convincing, and 

 there is much ground for the belief that the heart suffers solely from the 

 anemia common in these cases. ^"^ There is said to be a hemolytic poi- 

 son, a lipoid according to Murray, ^^ formed in the degenerating 

 fibroids which causes local hemolysis and "red degeneration," and 

 there are cases of acute aseptic degeneration of fibromyomas which 

 seem to have caused systemic intoxication. 



(6) Myxomas. — From a myxoma of the back Oswald*' obtained a 

 mucin with the following elementary composition: C, 50.82; H, 7.27; 

 N, 12.24; S, 1.19; P, 0.25 per cent. This differs from other mammalian 

 mucins in the presence of phosphorus, but Oswald does not consider 

 this a contamination. It also contained 12 per cent, of carbohydrate, 

 apparently glucosamine. 



(c) Chondromas, like normal cartilage, always contain much 

 glycogen (Lubarsch). Morner^^ found chondroitin-sulphm'ic acid 

 in several chondromas that he examined, although Schmiedeberg had 

 failed to do so. 



'^ Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1898 (40), 195. 



"Arch. f. Gyn., 1890 (38), 468. 



" Maly's Jahresber., 1884 (14), 462. 



8« Amer. Gynecol., 1903 (2), 232. 



81 See Jaschke, Mitt. Grenz. Med. u. Chir., 1912 (15), 249; ;McGUnn, Surg. 

 Gyn., Obst., 1914 (18), 180. 



82 Jour. Obs. and Gyn., 1910 (17), 534. 

 " Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1914 (92), 144. 

 s^Zeit. phvsiol. Chem., 1895 (20), 357. 



