OVARIAN CYSTS 521 



a clear, glassy structure; the larger the cysts become, and the more turbid and 

 thinner the fluid is, the more .'im])Ie are the proteins it contains. True mucin 

 is never present in ovarian cysts. Pseudomucin occurs only in the glandular 

 proliferating cystomas and the papillary proliferating cystadenomas, in the former 

 appearing constantly and abundantly, in the latter not constantly and never 

 abundantly (Pfanncnstiel). Paralhximin (Scherer) is a mi.\ture of pseudomucin 

 with vari;ii)le amounts of simple proteins. Mctnlbumin (Schercr) is the same body 

 that is called pseudomucin by Ilamiuarsten. Pnramucin (MitjukotT)"* is a mucoid 

 differing from mucin and pseudomucin in reducing Fehling's solution directly, 

 without having the carbohydrate group first split off by boiling with an acid. 

 Hydrolysis of paramucin by PregP'' showed an absence of glycine, but traces of 

 diamino-acids, and the presence of leucine, alanine, proline, aspartic and glutamic 

 acids, tryptophane and tyrosine. 



Substances similar to pseudomucin have been occasionally found in cancerous 

 ascitic fluid and in cystic fibromyomas (HoUmann); and they are abundant as 

 constituents of the contents of the peritoneum in the condition known as "pseudo- 

 myxoma peritonei,"^^ when the material is in realit.y the product of 

 cells implanted on the peritoneal surface through the bursting of an ovarian 

 cyst (or a cyst of the vermiform appendix (Frankel)).^^ The physically similar 

 substance found in pathological synovial membranes by Hammarsten differs in 

 yielding no reducing substance. Parovarian cysts arising from the Wolffian body 

 present an entirely different content, which is a clear, watery fluid, with specific 

 gravitj' usually under 1.010; the solids amount to but 1 or 2 per cent., and consist 

 chiefly of salts (the ash being often over 80 per cent.), mostly sulphates and chlorides. 

 They are usually (or always) free from pseudomucin, mucin, or other sugar- 

 containing substances, and other proteins occur only in small amounts, unless the 

 cyst is inflamed. Apparently mucoids do not form in cysts lined by ciliated 

 epithelium (Pfannenstiel). 



Santi^* has studied the physical chemistry of ovarian cysts, and finds the freez- 

 ing point very near that of blood, having no relation to density, viscosity or nitrogen 

 content; the specific electrical conductivity is higher than that of blood serum. 

 The physicochemical properties are less dependent upon chlorides, and more on 

 other substances (Gruner).^^ 



(/) Dermoid cysts of the ovary contain, as their chief and most 

 characteristic constituent, a yellow fat, which melts at 34°-39° and 

 soUdifies at 20°-25°. Ludwig and Zeynek^ have examined over sixty 

 such tumors, and found that the fatty material constantly contains 

 two chief constituents: one, crystaHizing out readily, they believed to 

 be cetyl alcohol, 



(CHs — (CHo) u — CH2OH) ; 



the other, remaining as an oily fluid, seems to be closely related to 

 cholesterol, although not consisting of one substance alone. Small 

 quantities of arachidic acid (Cvq, H40O2), as well as stearic, 'palmitic 

 and myristic acid (C14H28O2), existing as glycerides, are also "pres- 

 ent. Ameseder,^ however, found evidence that the supposed cetyl 

 alcohol is really eikosyl alcohol (C20H42O). These substances are se- 

 creted by the glands of the cutaneous structures of the cyst, and re- 

 s'" Arch. f. Gynsek., 1895 (49), 278. 



35 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1908 (58), 229. 



9« Literature by Peters, Monatschr. f. Geb. u. Gyn., 1899 (10), 749; Weber, St. 

 Petersb. med. Woch., 1901 (26), 331. 



" Miinch. med. Woch., 1901 (48), 965. 



s^ Folia clin. chimica et microscop., 1910 (2), 73. 



39 Biochem. Jour., 1907 (2), 383. 

 iZeit. phvsiol. Chem., 1897 (23), 40. 



2 76id., 1907 (52), 121. 



