424 THE CHEMISTRY OF TUMORS 



Substances similar to pseudomucin have been occasionally 

 found in cancerous ascitic fluid and in cystic fibromyomas (Soil- 

 man n) ; and they are abundant as constituents of the contents 

 of the peritoneum in the condition known as " pseudomyxoma 

 peritonei," l when the material is in reality the product of cells 

 implanted on the peritoneal surface through the bursting of 

 an ovarian cyst (or a cyst of the vermiform appendix (Frankel 2 )). 

 The physically similar substance found in pathological synovial 

 membranes by Hammarsten differs in yielding no reducing 

 substance. Parovarian cysts arising from the Wolffian body 

 present an entirely different content, which is a clear, watery 

 fluid, with specific gravity usually under 1.010; the solids 

 amount to but 1 or 2 per cent., and consist chiefly of salts 

 (the ash being often over 80 per cent.), mostly sulphates and 

 chlorides. They are usually (or always) free from pseudomucin, 

 mucin, or other sugar-containing substances, and other proteids 

 occur only in small amounts, unless the cyst is inflamed. 

 Apparently mucoids do not form in cysts lined by ciliated 

 epithelium (Pfannenstiel). 



Intraligamentary papillary cysts contain a yellow, yellow- 

 ish-green, or brownish-green liquid, which contains little or no 

 pseudomucin; the specific gravity is usually high (1.032 1.036) 

 and the fluid contains 9 to 10 per cent, of solids. The principal 

 constituents are the simple proteids of blood-serum (Hammar- 

 sten). 



According to the same author, the rare tubo-ovarian cysts 

 contain a watery serous fluid with no pseudomucin. 



(e) Dermoid cysts of the ovary contain, as their chief 

 and most characteristic constituent, a yellow fat, which melts 

 at 34-39 and solidifies at 20-25. Ludwig and Zeynek 3 

 have examined over sixty such tumors, and found that the 

 fatty material constantly contains two chief constituents : one, 

 crystallizing out readily, seems to be cetyl alcohol, 



(CH 3 -(CH 2 ) U -CH 2 OH); 



the other, remaining as an oily fluid, seems to be closely re- 

 lated to cholesterin, although not consisting of one substance 

 alone. Small quantities of arachidic acid (C 20 H 40 O 2 ), as well 

 as stearicj palmitic, and myristic acid (C 14 H 28 O 2 ), existing as 

 glycerides, are also present. These substances are secreted 



1 Literature by Peters, Monatschr. f. Geb. u. Gyn., 1899 (10), 749 ; Weber, 

 St. Petersb. med. Woch., 1901 (26), 331. 



2 Munch, med. Woch., 1901 (48), 965. 



3 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1897 (23), 40. 



