THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 3 57 



deed, the theory involves an entire misconception of true 

 spermatic influence. The sperm does not, by mere contact, 

 compel the germ to grow like itself, or like the being from 

 which it is derived. What happens is this : The two unite, 

 and the blended mass grows into a being which is a mean of 

 the two from which each sprang. If, therefore, the spermatic 

 theory were correct, the secondary growth should be a structural 

 mean between the tissue of the primary growth, and the tissue 

 in which the secondary growth occurs, which it is not. We 

 are driven, therefore, to the conclusion that the transported 

 cells take an active share in the production of those secondary 

 carcinomatous growths which occur in tissues unlike that 

 primarily attacked. The tissue-cells are carried away from 

 the primary growth, together with the specific bacterium, and 

 under the irritation of the parasite they continue in their 

 new site to behave exactly as before ; for they will of course 

 go on living if they find a suitable E, — if proper food and 

 oxygen be brought them, and if the cell-excreta be removed. 

 And this suitable E is provided by new blood-vessels and 

 lymphatics, which are developed under the bacterial stimulus. 

 The conditions of epithelial life thus obtaining, there is active 

 epithelial growth, and, given such growth, what wonder that 

 the epithelial cells should exhibit the same arrangement and 

 general tendencies as in their native site ? Let us reflect that a 

 single cell taken indifferently from an organism — from a be- 

 gonium leaf, for instance — is often capable of reproducing the 

 entire organism ; and that, as Herbert Spencer has argued, this 

 power is probably possessed in greater or less degree by every 

 cell of every organism, be it ever so complex. Shall we then 

 grant such tremendous potentialities to a single cell, and deny 

 to our transported epithelial cells the narrow powers of growing 

 and arranging themselves in a manner like that obtaining in 

 their native tissues ? 



I have said that the carcinoma parasite is favourable to cell 

 life : the subsequent degenerative changes are in large part 

 accidental, so to speak, for the most serious result either from 

 a contraction of fibrous tissue or from the breaking down of too 

 rapidly forming blood-vessels. 



What has been said concerning the part played by trans- 



B B 



