144 HISTIOLD TUMOUES. 



one removed, recurs at the seat of operation, from the very 

 tissues which seemed at the time so entirely healthy. Unless 

 therefore we adopt the theory of a dyscrasia, we are driven to 

 assume that the tissues, even Avhen already affected by the forma- 

 tive stimulus, afford no visible signs of this till after a certain 

 time has elapsed. 



^119. The second stage is characterised by the implication 

 of those lymphatic glands which receive the lymph from the 

 region primarily affected. There can be no doubt that some 

 material stimulus is conveyed by the lymphatics. But what is 

 it? We might think of cells. We know that even coarser 

 particles, e.g, insoluble pigments, rubbed into the abraded cutis 

 in tattooing, are taken up by the lymphatics, and carried to the 

 nearest lymphatic glands, where they are deposited. But may 

 we conscientiously resort to this analogy ? After recent injuries 

 the lymphatics gape, and are well able to take up material 

 particles. Are we justified even in suspecting the existence of 

 some such condition of the lymphatics in the neighbourhood of a 

 tumour? The pigment-granules are either heavy, sharp, or 

 hard particles, which, in consequence of any one of these 

 qualities, and aided by friction of the tattooed surface, are able 

 to penetrate in any direction through the soft parenchyma of the 

 body as far as the lymph -canals. We cannot say the same of 

 cells. Tills analogy therefore must be put aside ; but its rejec- 

 tion does not necessarily involve the rejection of the hypothesis 

 that the lymphatic glands are infected by the transport of cells. 

 On the contrary, thanks to the discovery that young cells are 

 enabled by their amoeboid contractility to penetrate through the 

 connective tissue in all directions, we are no longer at the mercy 

 of the analogy above alluded to ; with a degree of probability 

 verging on certainty we can assign the infection of the lymphatic 

 glands, and of the entire body, to the tumour-elements them- 

 selves, or to such young cells as have acquired infecting powers 

 by direct contact with them. 



The implication of the lymphatic glands is held to be a proof 

 of the infecting power of a tumour, and so flir as of unfavour- 

 able augury. This outweighs the more sanguine theory (which 

 has been started more than once), that the zymotic virus is 

 shut out from the rest of the organism by closm'e of the 

 lymph-paths in the interior of the . swollen glands. When we 



