374 Prof. M'lntosh's AWs/rom <Ae 



section tlie tumour appeared to be more or less gelatinous, a 

 pale fluid and blood escaping, and it was easily pierced by a 

 blunt knife. It had hollowed out for itself an elongated 

 cavity on the left side, extending over at least 20 neural 

 spines, from 12 to 14 of which were distinctly curved, and this 

 was deepest in front, where the densest part of tlie mass was, 

 and moreover showed signs of degeneration with effusion of 

 blood. The spines in this area had an unusually distinct 

 convexity to the right. The upward (to the right) pressure 

 of the tumour had by-and-by caused a portion to protrude 

 between two neural spines, enlargitig the space, and then it 

 liad spread over an area corresponding to four neural spines. 

 The soft gelatinous nature of the tumour appeared to make 

 the passage easy, and no affection of the bony tissues 

 occurred. The tumour could be enucleated from the cavity, 

 though muscular fibres and connective tissue slightly adhered 

 to its capsule. Microscopically * the mass consisted of a vast 

 number of small areolae, with intervening small cells, appa- 

 rently rapidly proliferating, the whole richly supplied with 

 minutely ramified blood-vessels. The areolae varied much in 

 size, and in the sections appeared to be empty, the fluid or 

 semifluid contents probably having escaped, and minute 

 nuclei occurred in their walls. Larger nuclei abounded in 

 the general cellular stroma, with traces of fibrillation. 

 Moreover, larger cavities, surrounded by definite and more 

 deeply stained walls, existed here and there, the contents being 

 a minutely granular and apparently coagulable fluid without 

 nuclei and occasionally with effused blood. Such probably 

 was the gelatinous fluid which exuded on section. Other 

 spaces presented sections of large blood-vessels, but these 

 were less defined than those without blood-vessels and may 

 have been partly caused by manipulation. In certain small 

 areas the blood-vessel was kept in situ by bands of tissue 

 radiating from the wall. The minute cells seemed to be in a 

 transparent gelatinous matrix which lent cohesion when 

 portions were separated by dissection, and also gave a streaked 

 or fibroid aspect to the sections. 



So far as could be observed the tumour, though apparently 

 of tolerably rapid growth, did not aftect the surrounding 

 tissues, since the muscular fibres could readily be separated 

 from its capsule, and there was no affection of the bony 

 structures. The rapid proliferation of the cells appeared to 

 be confined within the capsule, whilst the yielding mass 



* I am indebted to Pr. J. R. Tosh for excellent sections variously 

 stained. 



