METASTASIS. 249 



recurring in the history of all metastatic deposits of this 

 kind, in which only matters in solution and not particles of 

 a visible and mechanical nature are present in the blood. 

 The urate of soda cannot be directly seen in the blood 

 of the gouty person, unless it have previously been col- 

 lected by the help of chemical processes ; and just as lit- 

 tle the salts of silver. 



I have moreover described a new form of metastasis 

 which is certainly more rare but yet belongs to the same 

 category. When calcareous salts are reabsorbed from the 

 bones in large quantity, the bone-earth is generally ex- 

 creted by the kidneys, likewise in large quantity, so that 

 sediments form in the urine, the knowledge of which has 

 straggled down to us in the history of osteomalacia 

 [mollities ossium], from the notorious Mme. Supiot in 

 the last century. But this regular excretion of the cal- 

 careous salts is not ^infrequently impaired by disturb- 

 ances in the functions of the kidneys, in the same way 

 as in arthritis the excretion of urate of soda ; then there 

 also arise metastatic deposits of bone-earth, but at other 

 points, namely the lungs and the stomach. Considerable 

 portions of the lungs sometimes become calcified without 

 any injury to the permeability of the respiratory pas- 

 sages ; the diseased parts look like fine bathing sponge. 

 The mucous membrane of the stomach becomes filled in 

 like manner with calcareous salts, so that it feels like a 

 rasp and grates under the knife without the glands of the 

 stomach becoming directly implicated ; they are merely 

 imbedded in a stiffened mass, and possibly even thus 

 secretion might take place from them. 



To these kinds of metastasis in which definite sub- 

 stances, though not in a palpable form, but in solution, 



find their wav into the mass of the blood, careful atten- 



* 



tion must at all events be paid when we endeavour to 

 unravel the complex mass of conditions which are com- 



