252 ALLEGED MICEOBIC OKIGIN OF TUMOKS. 



ining the site of implantation at different times noticed that the 

 malignant graft was in process of absorption, or had disappeared 

 completely, leaving only a minute cicatrix at the point where it had 

 been embedded. The experiments yielded no better results if the 

 animals were subjected to starvation before inoculation, or if their 

 health was impaired from any other cause. 



Thoma (Fortschritte der Medecin, June 1, 1889) has found in the 

 muscles of carcinoma of rectum, stomach, and mamma, small, uni- 

 cellular protoplasmic cells, refracting light strongly, with nucleus 

 and sometimes a nucleolus also, which stain with hsematoxyliu, 

 eosin, saffron, and alum carmine, which he considers undoubtedly 

 parasitic. In shape they are irregularly rounded, or, more com- 

 monly, oval ; occur singly or in groups of from four to six in an 

 epithelial nucleus which appears as a hollow bladder with granular 

 portions besides the parasites. In birds epithelial tumors are pro- 

 duced by similar bodies, hence inference that they are the cause. 

 This is questionable, because Steiuhaus and Heidenhain have found 

 similar organisms in the epithelial lining of the salamander's bowel 

 without any pathological significance. 



At the meeting of the German Congress of Surgeons in 1888, 

 Hahu (" Ueber Transplantation von carcinomatoser Haut," Berl. Min. 

 Wochenschrift, May 4, 1888) gave an account of a successful experi- 

 ment which he had made on a woman suffering from a recurring 

 carcinoma of the breast which had advanced beyond the reach of 

 operative treatment. The breast had been previously extirpated 

 and she was now suffering from an extensive local recurrence with 

 innumerable nodules in the skin. He removed six small nodules 

 with the entire thickness of the skin, and then planted them upon 

 the opposite healthy breast, from which six similar pieces of skin 

 had been removed. The healthy skin was grafted upon the places 

 where the nodules had been excised. The dressing was not 

 changed until the thirteenth clay, when all the malignant grafts 

 were found adherent and slightly elevated above the niveau of the 

 surrounding skin. Four weeks after the grafting minute nodules 

 were found around two of the grafts. All the grafts continued to 

 increase in size, and at the time of death (ten weeks) had attained 

 the size of cherry-stones. Microscopical examination of the nodules 

 surrounding three of the grafts revealed the histological structure 

 of true carcinoma. He believed that the success which attended 

 his experiment was due to the fact that only new cells were taken 

 by the excision and implantation of recent nodules. In referring 

 to the literature on the subject of cancer inoculations, he states that 

 the first successful inoculation was made by Langenbeck, who in- 

 jected cancer juice into the jugular vein of a dog, and two months 

 later it was claimed that two cancerous nodules were found in the 



