

TUMOES. 487 



the blood-vessels and inclose portions of the hyaline cartilage 

 structure. 



Cartilaginous tumors are comparatively rare. They grow 

 both from the soft tissues and from bone, and are more common 

 in the latter situation than in the former. There are many 

 transitions from myxomatous and fibrous into cartilaginous con- 

 nective tissue, and the diagnosis often rests only on the large size 

 and the regular arrangement of the plastids, termed cartilage 

 corpuscles. 



Chondroma is a benign tumor which may appear multiple in the same kind 

 of tissue, but, as a rule, it does not infect the neighboring parts. In very 

 exceptional cases, however, true chondroma attains the capacity not only to 

 infect its neighborhood, but also to produce secondary tumors in the lungs, 

 never surpassing, however, the size of a walnut. Virchow enumerates six 

 cases of this kind. 



Pathologists have described under the head of " chondroma " soft tumors, 

 rich in " cells," which were imbedded in a scanty, gelatinous basis-substance. 

 Tumors of this kind were termed villous chondroma and mucous chondroma; 

 they may grow into the blood-vessels and produce embolic metastases. 

 Obviously, tumors of this description, though resembling chondroma under 

 the microscope, are not cartilaginous tumors, but either myxo-myeloma or 

 chondro-myeloma, both being of a malignant type. If firm, genuine cartilag- 

 inous tumors are found in different localities of the body and in the lungs, 

 also, there is no necessity for concluding that the latter are secondary 

 formations. For the lungs hold in the walls of the bronchi enough hyaline 

 cartilage to give rise under certain conditions (the chondromatous dyscrasia 

 or diathesis of some writers) to primary cartilaginous tumors. 



Chondroma of the "hyaline" variety is constructed like 

 physiological " hyaline " cartilage, the difference, at least in many 

 cases, being that in chondroma the plastids are of large size, 

 vary greatly in shapes, and are irregularly distributed. Besides, 

 the elements of chondroma are more coarsely granular i. e., 

 contain more living matter than is found in normal cartilage. 

 The gold stain reveals the reticulum in the basis-substance, just 

 as in normal cartilage. (See Fig. 187.) 



Cartilaginous new formation is found either throughout the 

 whole tumor, or in combinations with myxomatous, fibrous, or 

 bone-tissue; and sometimes, also, with myeloma, myoma, and 

 cancer. The latter combinations represent Virchow's group of 

 teratoid tumors i. e., undeveloped remnants of all varieties of 

 tissues in one tumor. This condition is probably due to an un- 

 developed organism, being inclosed in a fully developed one 

 foetus in fcetu. Formations of this kind are met with mostly in 

 the so-called dermoid cysts of the ovaries and the testes, although 



