GLANDTJLAR CARCINOMATA. 



187 



some ferment-like bodies, which are at present however wholly 

 unknown, 



§ 155. On examining what is left after the cancer-juice has 

 escaped, on exploring the spaces in which the juice was con- 

 tained, we are confronted by the second element in every can- 

 cerous formation, the cancer-stroma (fig. 58). To demonstrate 

 the stroma as perfectly as possible it is necessary to cut fine 

 sections from various parts of the tumour, which must then be 

 pencilled out ; a framework of connective tissue is thus dis- 

 played, whose trabeculaB enclose oval spaces ; the shortest dia- 

 meters of these spaces being at least twice the breadth of the 



Fig. 58. 



Stroma of soft glandular cancer pencilled out. a. Cylinders 

 of cancer-cells seen in transverse section ; 6. Trabeculae of 

 stroma ; c. A solitary spindle-cell which stretches obliquely 

 from one trabecula to another, and serves, by deposition of 

 basis-substance along its protoplasm, to give the impulse 

 for the formation of a neTv trabecula ; d. Round-cells infil- 

 trated into the substance of the trabeculas. ■^^. 



stoutest of the trabeculae, and at least five times the breadth of 

 those of medium thickness. This implies that neither the thick- 

 ness of the trabeculae nor the size of the meshes are the same in 

 all cancers, but that a certai^i ratio may be said to exist between 

 the width of the trabeculae and that of the meshes. This ratio 

 is of value in distinguishing the individual varieties of cancer 

 from one another. 



