FIBROUS SARCOMATA. 161 



of these finer fibrillas is itself made up of other fibrillse of extreme 

 tenuity, apparent to the eye as msre lines, though sharp and de 

 finite lines (fig. 51^). Just as a well-plaited braid takes up infi- 

 nitely less space than a tress of unkempt hair, even though the 

 number of hairs may be the same in both, so we may suppose 

 that in the fibroma the fine and finest fibrillar are very closely 

 packed, taking up an amazing amount of space when separated 

 by our needles. 



Between the fibrilla:?, which are composed of a gelatigenous 

 material, and represent a fibrous intercellular substance, we can 

 see the cells (fig. blh). These are usually small, roundly-oval, 

 and furnished with lustrous nuclei. In fio^. 51«, I have fif^ured 

 these elements under a high power, mainly because Virchoic 

 has been led, by their great resemblance to the fibre-cells of 

 unstriped muscle, to set up a " fibro-muscular tumour '* as a 

 special variety of fibroma. I do not wish for a moment to ques- 

 tion this resemblance ; it would be very difficult to draw a hard 

 and fast line between spindle-cells and unstriped muscular fibres 

 so far as their minute structure is concerned ; meanwhile I think 

 it desirable to begin by comparing sarcoma with inflammatory 

 proliferation, the spindle-cells of the tumour with those of the 

 cicatrix. This furnishes us with a practicable basis for under- 

 standing all the structural elements Avhich are met with in the 

 fibroid. 



It is only the chief constituents of the tumour that have been 

 hitherto described ; besides these we find : 1st, bands of spindle- 

 shaped cells which traverse the tumour in all directions ; 2nd, 

 rounded deposits of embryonic tissue which lie embedded here 

 and there in the continuity of the fibrous bundles. I regard 

 both of the above as transitional structures from which the 

 fibrous tissue is developed in just the same way as the cicatrix is 

 developed from the embryonic and spindle-cell tissues. In a 

 single uterus, I found a number of fibromata, the larger ones 

 consisting mainly of fibrous tissue, while the smaller ones were 

 almost entirely made up of spindle-cell tissue. 



The appearance of the tumours on section deserves especial 

 notice. The tortuous and interlacing bundles of fibres give it a 

 most peculiar aspect. Microscopic examination (fig. 51) analyses 

 the naked-eye appearances into their details, without shedding 

 any light on the cause of this arrangement. In some cases, the 



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