THE SARCOMATA. 



433 



THE SARCOMATA. 



As already stated, the sarcoma are tumours built up on the 

 type of embryonic connective tissue, and in which, as in 

 embryonic life, the cellular elements predominate over the in- 

 tercellular substance. The sarcoma are by far the most common 

 forms of malignant tumours met with in veterinary practice, 

 particularly in the horse, although all the ordinary patients of 

 the veterinarian are subject to their inroads. 



They vary in consistence from hardish nodulated masses, as 

 in lympho-sarcoma, to those of a soft colloid character, resem- 

 bling embryonic tissue in its most immature — gelatinous — stage, 

 and when it consists almost entirely of small round cells and a 

 soft amorphous intercellular substance. There is generally, 

 however, an attempt at the formation of some higher kind of 

 connective tissue, and consequently there are varieties of these 

 tumours, but that most commonly — nay, almost invariably — 

 seen in horses and cattle is the small round-celled sarcoma, 

 which are very soft and rapidly growing tumours, and chiefly 



-Sarcomatous cells, with a few fibres. 

 From the dog. 



occur primarily in fascise, loose subcutaneous tissues, in the 



connective tissue of the nerve centres, frequently in the retina, 



2f 



