258 ALLEGED MICKOBIC ORIGIN OF TUMORS. 



pearance when examined under high power and with the assistance 

 of Abbe's sub-stage condenser. The brilliant red or purplish-red 

 color of the " fuchsine bodies" forms a striking contrast to the 

 green and delicate purple of the tissues. He found these bodies 

 grouped in the interior of cells, usually surrounded by a vacuole. 



Their intra-cellular location and manner of reproduction is well 

 shown by the accompanying illustration (Fig. 9). He found these 

 bodies invariably present in forty-five specimens of carcinoma taken 

 from so many different individuals. He regards the organism 

 described as a species of fungus which belongs to the sprouting 

 fungi (Sprosspilze of Nageli), and believes that a direct etiological 

 relationship exists between it and the development of a carcinoma. 



At a meeting of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, 

 Patterson (British, Medical Journal, December 6, 1890) read a paper 

 on psorospermosis and its relation to cutaneous carcinoma in the 

 light of recent researches, illustrated by drawings aud microscopic 

 specimens exhibiting coccidia in proliferating epithelium. In the 

 discussion McKee, while admitting that coccidia might ultimately 

 be shown to be the cause, or at least one cause, of cutaneous and 

 perhaps other forms of carcinoma, led to the inference that the im- 

 perfect knowledge available at present rather pointed against than 

 in favor of this view. He maintained that Paget's disease of the 

 nipple resembled eczema, and was apparently inflammatory, yet the 

 same form of coccidium found in it was also credited with the pro- 

 duction of the malignant tumor of the breast which sometimes fol- 

 lowed it. He thought it more probable that Paget's disease simply 

 acted as one of many irritants, any one of which might give rise 

 to a malignant tumor in a part already predisposed to it. 



The strongest proof against the microbic nature of carcinoma 

 is the histological structure of all products of infective processes. 

 The products of all diseases, so far as known, which are caused by 

 microbes and are characterized by local inflammatory processes, 

 consist primarily of granulation tissue. The new tissue surround- 

 ing the seat of infection is a homoplastic product which originates 

 from preexisting tissues. So far, we have no knowledge of a 

 microbe which produces heteroplastic tissue proliferation ; that is, 

 the production of cells which do not preexist in that locality. 

 Many of the lymphomata undoubtedly owe their origin to specific 

 microbes, but these are not true tumors, and should be classified 

 with the inflammatory infective swellings the granulomata. 



There has been, so far, no proof furnished of the existence of a 

 specific bacillus in carcinoma or sarcoma, and the inoculation and 

 implantation experiments have proved so seldom successful, and 

 the experiments which at first appeared successful, have later 



