526 TUMORS. 



reach, and sometimes surpass, in size that of large epithelial nuclei. Lastly, 

 pale or coarsely granular bodies are seen wedged in between two or three 

 neighboring epithelia, smaller in size than the latter, some being devoid of, 

 and some possessing, oblong nuclei. These various formations in the cement- 

 substance are found in large numbers in the vicinity of the papillse. They 

 occur in the cement-substance of columnar as well as in that of cuboidal epi- 

 thelia. Very near the periphery of the tumor they are scanty, but absolutely 

 absent in the outermost layer of flat epithelium only. 



With the highest powers of the microscope (1200 diameters) the fibrous 

 portion of the connective tissue is seen to be composed of extremely delicate 

 spindles, which are separated from each other by very narrow light rims, 

 analogous to those which we are accustomed to see in epithelial formations. 

 By closely watching these light rims we certainly detect in them slender 

 threads, analogous to the thorns long known to exist in the cement-substance 

 of epithelium. The spindles themselves, representing what we call basis- 

 substance of connective tissue, are by no means homogeneous. In the thin- 

 nest layers of the bundles in the central portion of the tumor they exhibit a 

 delicate but distinct net-work, the threads of which are grayish, the carmine 

 coloring being confined to the meshes. Interspersed between the spindles is 

 seen a large number of multi-caudate corpuscles of reticular structure, the 

 peripheral sprouts of which tend toward the spindles and inosculate with the 

 net-work of the basis-substance. 



The peripheral portion of the connective tissue is, as has already been 

 stated, of a prevailing myxomatous structure. Here the spindles constituting 

 the basis-substance, instead of being packed together to form bundles, are 

 associated in the shape of a coarse reticulum, holding numerous small corpus- 

 cles, mainly at the points of intersection ; but the larger meshes encircled by 

 the spindles also contain a number of similar corpuscles or else a light, 

 so-called myxomatous, basis-substance. High powers of the microscope reveal 

 a delicate net-work structure in the inside fields of the myxomatous basis- 

 substance, as well as in the encircling spindles, and this net-work is in unin- 

 terrupted connection with the corpuscles at the junction of the spindles and 

 those contained in some of the meshes. 



The most peripheral portion of the connective tissue is in x connection 

 with the epithelium. Where a sharp line of demarcation exists, the highest 

 powers of the microscope reveal a single layer of connective-tissue spindles, 

 serving as a basis for the epithelia to rest on. This terminal stratum is in 

 close connection with the subjacent reticulum of myxomatous tissue and with 

 the capillary blood-vessels nearest the periphery. The blood-vessels not 

 infrequently approach the stratum so near that only a very narrow light rim 

 is left between their wall and the epithelium, and this rim is invariably tra- 

 versed by delicate grayish filaments. On the opposite side the stratum is in 

 close contact with the peripheral threads of the net-work of fully developed 

 columnar epithelia. In the case of not fully developed epithelial elements, as 

 intimate a connection is established by shining homogeneous spindle-shaped 

 prolongations, which go from the terminal stratum into the epithelial layer as 

 either an irregular reticulum or rows of filaments, arranged in a more or less 

 regularly vertical direction around a reticulated corpuscle, containing in its 

 interior one or more small, reticulated bodies of the aspect of nuclei. Thus, 

 such a reticulated corpuscle *. e., a not yet fully developed epithelium is 

 inclosed in the spindle in a similar manner to that in which the cement-sub- 



