TUMOURS. 



[ 787 ] 



TUMOURS. 



BIBL. Berk. & Br. Ann. N. H. 2. v. 464 ; 

 Cooke, Handb. 516 ; De Bary & Worouin, 

 Beit. v. pis. 1-3. 



TUMOURS. Non-inflammatory uew 

 formations. Under this head we shall 

 pake a few remarks upon some of the more 

 interesting elements 01 certain tumours and 

 other morbid growths. 



Sarcoma. The tumours included under 

 this name, comprise the fibro-plastic, fibre- 

 nucleated, recurrent fibroid, and themyeloid. 

 They consist of connective tissue, retaining 

 more or less the embryonic type j and the 

 varieties depend upon the size and form of 

 the cells, and the nature of the intercellular 

 substance. The cells are either round, 

 fusiform, or myeloid larger cells containing 

 many nuclei or secondary cells. The inter- 

 cellular substance is scanty, homogeneous, 

 granular, or fibrillated. 



Fibrous tumours consist of fully developed 

 connective tissue. The fibres are sometimes 

 firm and dense, at others lax. The cells or 

 connective-tissue corpuscles are very few in 

 number, and usually only become visible on 

 the application of acetic acid. They are 

 often minute spindle-shaped, fusiform, or 

 stellate bodies, the latter having processes 

 of varying length, which communicate with 

 those from neighbouring cells. 



Gummata are new formations, consisting 

 of an incompletely organized granulation 

 tissue. They soon undergo retrogressive 

 changes; hence the growth is ultimately 

 made up of atrophied, degenerated, and 

 broken-down cell products, imbedded in an 

 incompletely fibrillated tissue. 



Myxomata consist of a translucent and 

 succulent connective or mucous tissue, the 

 intercellular substance of which yields 

 mucine. They are of a peculiar soft gelatini- 

 form consistence, and of a pale greyish or 

 reddish-white colour. On scraping the cut 

 surface they yield a tenacious mucilaginous 

 liquid, in which may be seen the cellular 

 elements. The cells are angular and stel- 

 late, with long anastomosing prolongations 

 and trabeculce ; others are isolated, fusiform, 

 oval, or spherical, with one or two nuclei. 



Lipomata. Fatty tumours resemble adi- 

 pose tissue, and consist of cells containing 

 fat united by a variable quantity of connec- 

 tive tissue. 



The Enchondromata and Osteomata con- 

 sist of cartilage and bone respectively ; and 

 the Lymphomata are new formations con- 

 sisting of lymphatic, or, as it is usually 

 termed, adenoid tissue. 



The Papillomata, such as warts, horny 

 growths, polypi, originate from the skin 

 and mucous membranes, of the tissues of 

 which they may be called exaggerations. 

 The adenomata, or tumours of glands, are 

 new formations of gland tissue. They 

 resemble the racemose glands, and consist 

 of small grouped saccules or tubes filled 

 with squainous or cylindrical epithelium- 

 cells. 



The carcinomata, or cancers, consist of 

 cells of an epithelial type, without any 

 intercellular substance, grouped together 

 irregularly within the alveoli of a fibrous 

 strorna. There are four varieties scirrhus, 

 encephaloid, epithelioma, and colloid. These, 

 although all possessing the same general 

 characters, present certain structural dif- 

 ferences which serve to distinguish them. 

 The cells are comparatively large, varying 

 considerably in diameter, of a rounded, 

 oblong, or ovate form, usually in no definite 

 order, in the intervals of the fibres (PL 38. 

 figs. 11 & 12), although sometimes in the 

 meshes formed by the aggregation of the 

 fibres into loose bundles (fig. 17). 



The interspaces of the cells and fibres are 

 occupied by a pale yellowish or colourless 

 liquid j and the cells are so loosely imbedded 

 in the fibrous basis, that on scraping the 

 surface of a section of a cancer, numerous 

 cells are found in the juice thus obtained. 



The number of fibres present varies accord- 

 ing to the stage or development of the 

 cancer. In hard or schirrous cancer, they 

 predominate, the cells being few ; while in 

 soft, encephaloid, or medullary cancer they 

 are scanty, the cells being very abundant ; 

 globules of fat usually abound in the latter 

 forms. 



Other varieties of cancer have received 

 special names. Thus, when the capillaries 

 are very numerous and distended, extrava- 

 sated blood being also frequently present, 

 we have fungus hsBmatodes; when the 

 fibres are grouped into bundles, forming 

 marked areolse, filled with a gelatinous 

 substance, we have colloid or gelatiniform 

 cancer (PI. 38. fig. 18) ; again, when the 

 cancer cells abound in pigment, we have 

 melanotic cancers. 



In epithelial cancer, or epithelioma, the 

 general arrangement of the elements is not 

 strikingly altered, but the papillae of the 

 skin are hypertrophied, the epithelial cells 

 more numerous than natural, sometimes 

 containing many nuclei or secondary cells, 

 and the intercellular juice is more abundant. 

 3E2 



