MORBID GROWTH IX GENERAL. 77 



the logical perfection as with the practical utility of our defini» 

 tions. We have to define technical terms devised by the physician 

 to meet his daily wants. We are not trying to classify the pro- 

 ducts of morbid growth, but to give the reader a general view of 

 their coarse morphology. 



A. When the products of morbid growth are situated in the 

 parenchyma of organs, they may present themselves as — 



1, A UNIFORM ENLARGEMENT of the affected organ in all its 

 dimensions {intumescentid). This is synonymous with hypertrophy, 

 in the oldest and least scientific sense of the word. The enlaro-e- 

 ment may either be due to a uniform overgrowth of all the 

 tissues of W'hich the organ is made up, or to a quantitative excess 

 of some one structural element which is uniformly distributed 

 throughout the organ. Were it not more prudent to drop the 

 word hypertrophy altogether, we might call the former variety 

 irue, the latter false hypertrophy. The former is exemplified in 

 the muscular hypertrophy due to exercise — a hypertrophy in 

 wdiieh not only the muscular fibres, but the perimysium and the 

 vessels take part ; so that, on microscopical examination, tlio 

 hypertrophied muscle is not found to differ in any respect from 

 a normal one. The same is true of some forms of hypertrophy 

 affecting the spleen and the lymphatic glands. On the other 

 hand, we must give the name of false hypertrophy to such uni- 

 form enlargements as are due to an increase in the amount of 

 interstitial connective tissue in glands, muscles, &c. The vague- 

 ness of our whole conception of hypertrophy, however, is obvious 

 from the fact that even fatty infiltration is occasionally admitted 

 into this category. 



2. A KNOT (iiodus). By this we understand a circumscribed 

 tumour more or less globular in form. In size it may vary from 

 a granule barely appreciable to the naked eye to that of a 

 man's head. Its size is solely and directly proportional to the 

 amount of newly- formed tissue. On cutting through an organ 

 in which a mass of this sort is embedded, we find it protruding- 

 more or less above the surface of section. Hence we may justly 

 infer that it must exert some measure of tearing, stretching, and 

 dissociating force upon the healthy parenchyma which surrounds 

 it. Hence too its tendency to grow in the direction of least 

 resistance, so that when it happens to be situated at or near the 

 surface it causes a globular protuberance. The degree in which 



