500 LECTURE XIX. 



was drawn between the eroding form of suppuration, or 

 chancre, and the " suppuration " or sanious ulceration* 

 (Yerjauchung) of cancer. 



But there are essential differences between the indi- 

 vidual species of new-formations in consequence of their 

 elements' attaining to very different degrees of develop- 

 ment, or to express myself otherwise, in consequence 

 of the length of time their elements are calculated to 

 l as t the average duration of the life of the individual 

 elements being extremely different. We know, that if 

 we examine a spot a month after suppuration has taken 

 place in it, although the pus is apparently still present, 

 we can no longer rely upon finding unaltered pus 

 in the collection. Pus which has lain anywhere for 

 weeks and months is, strictly speaking, no longer pus, 

 but disintegrated matter, debris, dissolving particles of 

 pus, which have become altered by fatty degeneration, 

 putrefying processes, calcareous deposits and the like. 

 On the contrary we find that a cancerous tumour may 

 last for months, yet still contain the whole of its ele- 

 ments intact. We can therefore positively affirm, that 

 a cancer-cell is capable of existing longer than a pus- 

 corpuscle, just as we know that the thyroid body exists 

 longer than the thymus gland, and that certain organs, 

 for example individual parts of the sexual organs, early 

 perish in the course of ordinary life, whilst others retain 

 their existence throughout the whole of life. So it is 

 also with pathological new-formations. At a time when 

 certain forms have long since entered upon their course 

 of retrogressive metamorphosis, others are just begin- 



* Jauche (sanies) always conveys the idea of decomposition. We call Mist 

 jauehe the fluid obtained by the maceration of manure. Verjauchuug is the pro- 

 cess during which the substances are decomposed which subsequently furnish the 

 Jauche. The French putrilage is nearly equivalent to Jauche in its pathological 

 acceptation, only the latter is rather thinner and more liquid. From a M8. Note 

 by the Author. 



