AN ALVEOLAR SARCOMA 103 



I have stated above that in this tumour there was no evidence of 

 defence no evidence of phagocytosis, or any increase in the number 

 of the connective-tissue cells. After many scores of hours spent in 

 minute examination of the sections of this tumour, I have succeeded 

 in finding only one single mitosis in a connective-tissue cell at the 

 margin of the tumour, and in this instance (Fig. 37 ; 7) the mitosis 

 had the ordinary somatic characters. 



It may be asked whether the structures described above are to 

 be found in every alveolar sarcoma. About the same time that I 

 examined this sarcoma another typical alveolar sarcoma of the 

 muscles of a man's thigh was sent to me for pathological examina- 

 tion. I used the same methods of fixation, etc., for both, yet the 

 minuter histological features are different in the two tumours. In 

 the alveolar sarcoma of muscle the intranuclear bodies are less 

 definite in form than those of the tumour from the breast. There 

 are evidences, however, in the structure of the muscle-sarcoma that 

 the nucleolus-like bodies escape from the nucleus, enlarge to form 

 highly refracting oval bodies, which are at first devoid of visible 

 nucleus, and subsequently become multinucleated. These features 

 are evidences that the tumour, like that in the breast, was the result 

 of infection by protozoa, that the latter were in a more labile 

 state in the muscle-tumour, and that they would probably have been 

 more satisfactorily studied in the fresh living state at the normal 

 temperature of the body. 



What were the opinions expressed by pathologists upon the 

 specimens which form the basis of this study of this tumour of the 

 breast when they were demonstrated by me ? Some of my specimens 

 were examined and commented upon by one of the ablest pathologists 

 of our day, the late Professor A. A. Kanthack, and I will quote the 

 report of his remarks, because they reflect the impression made in 

 the year 1895 on minds deeply versed in pathological learning by the 

 work of those who found evidences of protozoan life in certain human 

 diseases ; and I may preface this quotation by reminding the reader 

 that in variola and vaccinia the presence and the specific character of 

 the bodies in question are now fully established. The report runs : 



