186 



GLANDULAR CAECINOMATA. 



always of the greatest size. Their round, vesicular nuclei, fur- 

 nished with distinct, lustrous nucleoli, prove that these cells are 

 truly descended from the mucous layer of the blastoderm ; they 

 form elaborately twisted cylinders beset with clavate appen- 

 dages which are best seen when the juice squeezed from the cut 

 surface of a recent specimen (cancer-juice) is examined in serum 

 (fig. 57). In these cylinders the boundary-lines between the 

 individual elements cannot be detected. This is because the 



Fig. 57. 



Cellular aggregates from the juice of a soft cancer of the 

 breast. After Billroth. 



protoplasm of the cells is absolutely naked, so that their imme- 

 diate juxtaposition produces the optical effect of continuity. It 

 would seem as though the speedy onset of fatty metamorphosis 

 hindered the farther evolution of the epithelial type, for we 

 seldom come across a cell of large size whose protoplasm does 

 not already contain one or two oil-globules. The greater the 

 number of oil-globules, the more distinctly can we trace the 

 outlines of the cell, which are otherwise so difficult of demon- 

 stration. The conversion of the cells into granule-corpuscles 

 with fatty cUbris appears to take place in the usual way. Neither 

 microscopical nor chemical investigation has yet succeeded in 

 showing the existence of any specific elements in cancer-juice. 

 The clear and colourless serum contains albuminates and albu- 

 minoid matters in solution ; among these there may perhaps be 



