104 GLANDrL.Vrv CAECIXO^irATA. 



of the adjoining connective tissue, where they infect hy contact 

 the indifferent cells ^vhich these interstices contain. We are to 

 some extent reminded of the way in Avhich the tegumentary 

 layers of epithelium grow ; save that in them the migratory 

 corpuscles of the connective tissue pass over entirely to the side 

 of the epithelium, the boundary line between the epithelium and 

 the connective tissue being thus preserved ; while in the present 

 case, the migratory cells are infected while yet embedded in the 

 connective tissue, thereby causing the penetration of the epi- 

 thelium into the extra-epithelial tissues. 



§ 160. Fig. 61, h, represents the stage of acme. The pro- 

 liferated cells demand more space ; hence the fi]3res of the con- 

 nective tissue are dissociated, and go to form the large and small 

 trabecular of a tough stroma ; upon and within them ramify the 

 blood-vessels of the cancer, whose calibre and fullness determine 

 the intensity of the red element in the hue of the tumour. That 

 it is fatty degeneration by which the cancer-cells are affected and 

 to which they finally succumb, is clear enough from the mere 

 examination of the juice scraped from a cancerpus tumour. In 

 this, all stages of the degenerative process are exhibited side 

 by side (§ 26), from the appearance of the first oil-globule in the 

 protoplasm, to the complete disintegration of the cell. What 

 appear to the naked eye as yellow streaks and dots (carcinoma 

 reticulatum of Muller) are found under the microscope to consist 

 mainly of granule-cells. In transverse sections, the thickening 

 of the trabecule (of the stroma) which is associated with the 

 diminution in number of the cells, attracts our chief attention. 

 Fig. 61, <:•, represents a type of structure which is permanently 

 characteristic of the so-called scirrhus, but which is met with in 

 every simple cancer as a transitory phase. The trabecuh\3 are 

 extraordinarily thick; they consist of a connective tissue with 

 short fibres, and provided with spindle-shaped cells. After the 

 total disintegration and removal of the infiltrated cells, this con- 

 nective tissue has the field to itself. In the cancer-cicatrix, the 

 oldest part of the tumour, Ave see bands of fibres crossing and 

 inter-penetrating each other in every possible direction ; here and 

 there a residue of fatty cltbris indicates the former position of a 

 group of cancer-cells ; in other respects, the cancer-cicatrix 

 exhibits no peculiai'ity which might serve to distinguish it from 

 any other sort of cicatricial tissue (fig. 61, c?). 



