FIBROMA MOLLUSCUM. 373 



§ 316. Fibromata of the papillary body deserve especial 

 notice. They differ from fibromata of other organs in their 

 greater softness ; hence they derive their name of " Molluscum." 

 Fibroma Molluscum (yirchow) is usually multiple, so that we 

 ^re able to study every stage of its development in a single case 

 (cf. VircJiowy Kr. Geschw. i., 325 and frontispiece). A small 

 ^roup of papillae, perhaps even a single papilla (for this point is 

 still siih judice) furnishes the materials for a roundish nodule, 

 which may pass through every gradation of size, from that of a 

 millet-seed to that of a man's head and upwards. In its interior 

 the various stao-es of m'owth succeed one another as follows : 

 the younger nodules, and the more recent portions of the older 

 ones, consist of round-cell and spindle-cell tissue, while the older 

 ones are made up of fibrous tissue. It is noteworthy that in 

 its fibrous stage, the growth never exhibits that extreme tough- 

 ness which is characteristic of old cicatrices or of the corps fihreux 

 of the uterus. The molluscum always remains soft ; and this is 

 due, as I can assert from personal knowledge, to a peculiar modi- 

 fication in the development of the connective tissue, owing to its 

 being complicated with oedema. The connective tissue as it 

 approaches maturity, does not contract from all sides tovv^ards a 

 single centre, in the usual way, and so shrink together as a whole ; 

 it contracts round certain lines which traverse the mass, and 

 which coincide in the main with the course taken by the vessels. 

 We meet with this modification in the development of fibrous tissue 

 wherever the islets of parenchyma undergo a metamorphosis 

 requiring space for its completion; so e.g, it occurs in the 

 development of clusters of fat-cells, in enchondromata, myxo- 

 mata and colloid cancers. The connective tissue forming the 

 stroma of these tumours represents the major part of the 

 original basis of embryonic tissue, which, as the specific dif- 

 ferentiation progresses, and the originally minor part under- 

 goes a disproportionate increase in bulk, becomes converted 

 into a narroAv framework for the reception of the islets of 

 cartilage, granules of colloid matter, clusters of fat-cells, &c. 

 The present case is simply one of oedema, due probably to 

 some disturbance of the circulation, and occurring in the mol- 

 luscum-nodule at an early period., The fluid requires space. 

 Hence even in that early stage, when the mass consists of round- 

 cells, elongated fissures make their appearance in the parenchyma- 



