54 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



probably very prominent. The erosive agent of the 

 chorionic villus is in its multi-nuclear cap, or giant cell, 

 sometimes without warrant called a plasmodium. Pro- 

 perly speaking a plasmodium consists of fused cells, and 

 there is reason to suppose that a giant cell is one which 

 accumulates nuclear material without normal fission. 

 If we regard the nucleus not as a " director," which is a 

 common psychological fallacy, but as a workshop con- 

 taining the non-living tools, weapons, or catalysts, by 

 which the cytoplasm works, it is easy to understand that 

 when there is active use and much waste of such tools, 

 mitosis does not occur. In normal gestation, when uterine 

 reaction is complete and erosion ceases, there is probably 

 no longer any multi-nucleated cell, for where such are 

 found pathological conditions exist. If we knew when 

 such a cell is again formed in fragments of the decidua 

 we should be able to point to the very moment when 

 chorion-epithelioma starts. It begins when the uterus 

 has involuted, and is no longer in its highly developed 

 and vascular form. I say highly vascular because, as 

 remarked before, it seems that the blood plasm itself 

 exerts a direct inhibitory influence on malignant cells. 

 When considering this aspect of the problem I came, 

 independently of any suggestion, to the conclusion that 

 in some carcinomatous conditions I should expect to 

 find multi-nuclear epithelial cells, closely resembling the 

 cap of the trophoblast. This inference was confirmed 

 by Mr. Sampson Handley, who told me, not at all to my 

 surprise, that whereas no such cells are formed at the 

 distal part of a carcinoma while still advancing in the 

 lymphatics, they are to be found as soon as the growth 

 comes in contact with the blood. This implies that there 

 is a new reaction in the growth, and such a reaction seems 



