500 THE CHEMISTRY OF TUMORS 



tissue about it. Cattley •""' found tiie inierochemic distribution of po- 

 tassium the same in cancer as in normal cells, and the same seems to be 

 true of maup:anese.'''^ 



Schwalbe ^^ found that cancer-cells contain iron in a condition 

 demonstrable b}^ the Berlin-blue reaction, and occurring independent 

 of hemorrhages. Tracy ■'* found that tumors reacted microscopically 

 for iron, either free or in the form of an albuminate, only in areas 

 where hemorrhages had occurred. Nuclear or organic iron could be 

 detected in the nuclei, occurring in a network arrangement. In other 

 words, iron occurs in tumors, both quantitatively and qualitatively, 

 exactly as in normal cells of the same type. The same writer ^^ found 

 in tumors, by microchemical reactions, that phosphorus in the form 

 of nucleo])roteins likewise shows no essential dift'erences from its dis- 

 tribution in normal tissues. 



In this connection may be mentioned the observations of Hem- 

 meter,"" who found that the cells of carcinoma of the mammarv 

 gland will shrink when placed in physiological salt solution or in 

 the serum of the patient, whereas normal cells swell when placed in 

 cancer-juice. This suggests that the osmotic pressure, and, by infer- 

 ence, the amount of inorganic constituents, is lower than in normal 

 tissues. Crj'stalloids, such as KI, diffuse readily into cancer tissue. ^'•'^ 



(4) Enzymes. — The rapid and extensive autolysis that occurs in 

 tumors, as showm both morphologically and by the presence of the 

 products of protein cleavage in them, indicates that tumor cells 

 resemble all other cells in possessing intracellular proteolytic enzymes. 

 Because of autolysis, puncture fluids in cancer of serous surfaces show 

 an increased amount of incoagulable nitrogen (Morris), ''' and they 

 may show free amino-acids (Wiener) j"^^ while there is a slight increase 

 in the incoagulable nitrogen of the blood (Takemura)."'** 



There is considerable but not undisputed evidence that cancer tis- 

 sue autolyzes somewhat more rapidly than corresponding normal tis- 

 sues,**" and, according to Neuberg, Blumenthal and others,'^^ that 

 cancer extracts digest other tissues than themselves (heterolysis), a 

 property not exhibited by extracts of normal tissues. ]\Iiiller and 

 others would ascribe this heterolysis to the leucocytes present in the 



soLancot, 1907 (172), 13. 



ci Modifrrofoaini, Proc. Roval Soc, B, 1912 (86), 174. 

 53 ('(.111. f. I'atli., inoi (12), 874. 

 f'^ Jour. IMcd. Kpscarch, 1905 (14), 1. 

 55 Martha Tracy, Jour. Mod. rjescaroli, 1906 (14). 447. 

 50 Auier. Jour. Med. Soi., 190.3 (125), 080. 



.Ida Van den Volden, P.ioohem Zeit., 1908 (9), 54; aeo also Wells ami Tledon- 

 hiiTfr, Jour. Infect. Di.s., 1912 (11), 349. 



57 Arch. Int. Med.. 1911 (8), 457. 



58 Hiochem. Zeit., 1912 (41), 149. 

 50 I hid., 1<)10 (25), 505. 



«oSc,. ^(oliirnolo, P»iochem. Zeit., 1909 (22), 299; Daels and Dclenz^, Bull. 

 Acad. .Med. J'.clj;., 1913 (26), 833. 



01 Bibliography by Hamburger, Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1912 (59), 847. 



