SPINDLE-CELL SARCOMATA. 159 



tarles of the pigment. The histological details of pigmentary 

 infiltration have been fully described in the early part of this 

 AYork ; the reader may refer to the corresponding sections. I 

 there repudiated, as regards melanotic growths, the hypothesis 

 which derives pigmentation solely from antecedent haemorrhages, 

 substituting the view that in such cases soluble blood-pigment 

 was taken up from the blood. I arrived at this conclusion, apart 

 from the lack of evidence in support of the hemorrhagic theory, 

 from considering how pigment first originates in tumours which 

 have existed for a considerable time as simple medullary sarco- 

 mata, and have subsequently become melanotic; recurring as 

 such after extirpation and giving rise to secondary deposits of 

 the same kind. In such tumours we are often able to determine 

 that the earliest traces of pigmentary infiltration appear in the 

 epithelial cells lining the vessels. Can this be explained otherwise 

 than by supposing that the epithelial cells take up the diffused 

 colouring-matter from the blood? that it becomes concentrated 

 and then precipitated in a granular form in their interior ? And 

 when pigmentation of precisely the same kind makes its appear- 

 ance at a later period outside the vessels, and finally extends 

 throughout the entire parenchyma of the tumour, I cannot see 

 any reason for doubting that here too the phenomenon takes 

 place in the same manner as in the epithelial cells which line the 

 vessels — by the absorption of diffused colouring-matter from the 

 blood. 



§ 127. In comparison with the general pathological relations 

 of melanotic tumours which have just been discussed, their posi- 

 tion in the anatomical scale is a question of subordinate moment 

 What is vulgarly known as melanotic cancer has already been 

 described (§ 125) under the name of alveolar round-cell sarcoma, 

 or medullary melanotic sarcoma. The remainino; melanotic 

 growths belong for the most part to the group of spindle-cell 

 sarcomata. Their consistency is generally firmer ; their texture 

 fiisciculated or foliaceous. Their well-marked tendency to pro- 

 ject above the surface, to form tuberous and fungous elevations, a 

 tendency which they have in common with the round-cell sarco- 

 mata, distinguishes them veiy notably from the destructive carci- 

 nomata. As regards their colour, we must bear in mind the 

 principle above referred to (of the colourless condition of their 

 elements when young), as a standard of comparison. Melanotic 



