PARASITES IN TUMOURS 



767 



surrounding cells form cell-nests (Borrel, Fabre-Domeyne, Brault, Torok and others). 

 The micro-chemical reactions of these bodies are those of keratinized cells : picro- 

 carmine stains them bright yellow, osmic acid deep brown, etc. 



III. Albarran described the occurrence of Coccidia in a new growth of the upper 

 jaw. Albarran' s "coccidia" were in some cases encysted, and in others not 

 encysted ; they were slightly rounded, having a more or less visible nucleus and 

 were always situated outside the epithelial cells. 



These forms never present the characteristic appearance of Coccidia and never 

 show falciform bodies. " The different appearances presented by these cells, the 

 accumulation of refractile bodies, the uniform staining of the whole mass by the 

 same stain indicate, on the contrary, that they are cells undergoing disintegration 

 preparatory to disappearing " (A. Brault). 



IV. Many observers have described Coccidia in cancers. The various descriptions 

 given by different authors do not agree among themselves and apply evidently to 

 very different conditions. Soudakewitch, Foa, Buffer, Walker, Thoma, and 

 Savtchenko all ascribe the parasitic forms which they describe to the Coccidia. 

 Savtchenko has, however, abandoned the idea that the appearances seen by him 

 were due to an animal parasite and considers rather that they belong to the yeasts. 



Soudakewitch' s method. In 110 cancers, Soudakewitch found certain appearances 

 which he attributed to the presence of Coccidia. The technique employed in these 

 researches was as follows : 



1. Fixation. Fix in a saturated aqueous solution of perchloride of mercury, 

 Flemming's solution, or by immersion in a 1 per cent, solution of osmic acid for 

 48 hours followed by 3-5 days in Miiller's fluid. 



2. Embed in celloidin. 



3. Staining, (a) Of sections fixed in perchloride. Leave the sections in an aqueous 

 solution of safranin for 1 or 2 days, then wash in alcohol slightly acidified with 

 nitric acid, or in a weak aqueous solution of picric acid. 



(b) Of sections fixed in osmic acid. Stain with an old solution of Ranvier's hsema- 

 toxylin. 



4. Microscopical appearance. Use an high power dry lens. In the cancer cells, 

 small rounded spherical bodies will be seen displacing and compressing the nucleus : 

 these bodies have an enveloping membrane, a finely granular protoplasm and a 



FIG. 370. Parasites of cancer. (After Soudakewitch.) 



nucleus. In size they may be as large as a leucocyte, and generally speaking there 

 is only one so-called parasite in each cell, though there may be two, three, or 

 even five. After staining with hsematoxylin very diverse and complicated structures 

 may be seen in the interior of the parasite, of which fig. 370 reproduced from 

 Soudakewitch's drawings gives an idea. 



Cells containing these structures are generally considerably hypertrophied and 

 just about to undergo karyokinetic division : occasionally also necrosis- of the 

 nucleus and destruction of the cell protoplasm is observed. 'According to Soudake- 



