462 MUCOUS MEMBRANES. 



variety however, exhibits a very remarkable peculiarity in addi- 

 tion, doubtless connected with minuter tissue-changes, but the 

 main feature of which has hitherto evaded all direct elucidation. 

 I refer to the contraction of the connective tissue in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the scirrhous nodules. The narrowing of the gastric 

 cavity, which coincides in point of time with the thickening of 

 its walls, and which has already been alluded to, must be 

 ascribed to this contraction. In this locality however, there is 

 no hope of ever arriving at a better knowledge of the process. 

 The phenomena are far more open to investigation as they occur 

 in the peritoneum. We may expect, in particular, to get at 

 some reliable results by examining the transparent texture of 

 the epiploon. This, in point of fact, shrinks into a rigid cord, 

 with cancerous nodules scattered through its substance, which 

 may even, supposing the ascites moderate in amount, be felt 

 through the abdominal walls in the region of the transverse 

 colon. If we spread it out, and try to ascertain the cause of its 

 shrinking, it reminds us, under a low magnifying power, of a 

 cloth, spread out flat, and then clutched and crumpled together 

 from a single point, from which the folds all radiate ; but instead 

 of the crumj^led nucleus, we find the smooth, white, scirrhous 

 nodule, forming the centre of these radiating folds. For my own 

 part, I feel convinced that the pre-existing connective tissue 

 really is in some sort used up in the present case, and that the 

 scirrhous nodule, moreover, represents the quanity of connective 

 tissue so employed ; but I am not able to offer any opinion about 

 the way in which this is brought to pass. 



This degeneration of the peritoneal sac naturally leads to 

 rigidity and contraction of the mesentery, and consequently to 

 the most serious disturbances of the intestinal peristalsis ; more- 

 over, very intimate adhesions usually form between the abdo- 

 minal viscera, so that the small intestine, for instance, is often 

 found as it were rolled up into a ball, in the interior of which 

 its canal forms the most labyrinthine convolutions, offering 

 difficulties, almost insurmountable, to its being traced out by 

 dissection. 



§ 400. Instead of the various forms of squamous epithelioma 

 which we have repeatedly encountered between the lips and the 

 cardiac orifice, we meet, below the cardia, with a columnar 

 ejjitJtelioma. Its favourite seat is in the stomach, and most 



