146 SARCOMATA. 



interior, or immediately around tliem. Vio still liave ^^lenty to 

 do in trying to increase the store of our experience concerning 

 this most important subject, by the thorough histological investi- 

 gation of every tumour which comes under our notice, combined 

 with a careful record of the farther progress of each case. For 

 the present, we will content ourselves with stating the degree of 

 malignity of each individual species of tumour, so far as the 

 experience at our disposal will allow. It will be seen that 

 " cancerous " growths stand foremost in order of malignity, but 

 that some of the histioid tumours (viz. sarcomata and enchon- 

 dromata) are also endowed with a certain measure of malignity, 

 which is not always assignable to their being combined with 

 cancer. 



§ 122. Before dismissing this important subject, several 

 points nearly allied to malignity, but which ought not to be 

 confounded with it, must be placed in their right light. First 

 among these is the general question of danger to life. A tumour 

 may, by its position, its size, its weight, &c., not only occasion 

 the greatest inconvenience to its host, but may be the direct 

 cause of his death without being entitled, on this ground alone, 

 to be called malignant. A fibroid growth in the prostate 

 obstructs the urethra and causes death by retention of urine ; a 

 fibroid of the uterus endangers life by haemorrhage ; we are not 

 justified on such grounds in terming either of these tumours 

 malignant. Neither can the multiple character of a tumour be 

 regarded as ijiso facto evidence of its malignity. "When we find 

 sarcomatous growths in various parts of the skeleton ; when 

 eruptive foci co-exist on the calvarium, the tibia?, the clavicle 

 and the vertebral column, we may legitimately infer that the 

 entire osseous system is diseased, and we may suspect a general 

 disease of bone, analogous to the general aftection of the skin in 

 the exanthemata ; but it would be a mistake to try to identify 

 this primary generalisation of the growth with that secondary 

 generalisation which is peculiar to malignant tumours. The two 

 are independent of each other. 



a. Sarcomata. 



§ 123. On comparing any sarcoma, as regards its colour and 

 consistency, with muscular tissue, we find it hard to understand 



