250 ALLEGED MICROBIC ORIGIN OF TUMORS. 



found bacilli which behaved on staining like tubercle bacilli in 

 rapidly growing lympho-sarcoma, and Klebs in leukaemic lympho- 

 mata. 



In the fall of 1 887, Scheuerlen (Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1887, 

 No. 48) read a paper before the Medical Society at Berlin which at the 

 time attracted a great deal of attention, and which was immediately 

 noticed by every medical journal on both continents. In this paper 

 he put forth the claim that he had discovered the microbe of carci- 

 noma. From ten cases of carcinoma of the breast he had made 

 inoculations upon solid sterilized ascites and hydrocele fluid. Usu- 

 ally on the third day a growth, in the form of a colorless film, was 

 seen on the surface of the serum, which later changed into a yellow- 

 ish-brown color. On microscopic examination it was found that 

 this culture was composed of short bacilli, with spores which could 

 be readily stained with the ordinary reagents. These bacilli could 

 not be seen in stained sections, but could be demonstrated in fresh 

 cancer juice. Six bitches were inoculated by injecting material 

 from the pure cultures directly into the posterior breast gland, and 

 fourteen days later a circumscribed tumor the size of a walnut had 

 formed at the point of inoculation. In the animals killed four 

 weeks after inoculation the tumors examined under the microscope 

 were seen to be composed of epithelial cells, in which the spores of 

 the bacilli could be readily identified. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, Gutt- 

 mauu agreed with the author that the bacilli were the cause of can- 

 cer. Frankel thought that the microbes entered the tumor and 

 their presence only indicated that the tumor tissue had determined 

 localization of floating microbes. In the same journal Schill, of 

 Dresden, states that he has found in cancerous and sarcomatous 

 tissues rod-shaped microbes which he succeeded in cultivating on 

 gelatine. 



Freire claims priority in the discovery of the microbe of carci- 

 noma. Perrin and Barnahei and Sanarelli, both of Siena, have 

 also found a bacillus in connection with the etiology of malignant 

 growths. 



Ballance and Shattock (British Med. Journal, Oct. 29, 1887) 

 made cultivations from twenty-two cases of carcinoma, the majority 

 of which only yielded negative results. When a growth did occur 

 the organisms were the same as those described and figured by 

 various observers as occurring in healthy tissues. 



Francke's (" Ueber Aetiologie und Diagnose von Sarkom und 

 Carcinom," Munch, med. Wochenschrift, 1887) experiments began 

 in November, 1887, and he had already seen and demonstrated the 

 bacillus of sarcoma when Scheuerlen's discovery was announced. 

 Francke has examined nine cancers since then, and in all has 



