130 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



are peculiarly modified : they become greatly enlarged, 

 or thickened, as if they were undergoing some kind of 

 colloidal degeneration. Fig. 6 of Plate II represents 

 such a thickening of the fibres, and their adhesion 

 together in bundles. These thickened fibres are at first 

 quite structureless, and they stain bright red with Mann's 

 methyl-blue-eosin, and orange with Mallory's connective 

 tissue stain. The large fibre in fig. 7, PI. II, shows the 

 further progress of this degenerative change. The fibres 

 now display what appears to be a very delicate, faintly- 

 staining reticulum (blue with both of the stains men- 

 tioned), the interspaces of which contain a substance 

 which does not stain at all. Between these thickened 

 fibres is the general stroma of the tumour : this is 

 represented in fig. 7 : it resembles nothing so much as 

 the reticulum of a lymph gland. This reticulum is 

 continuous with the enlarged fibres mentioned above. 



All this reticulum contains great numbers of very 

 small cells occupying its interspaces, and two kinds of 

 cells are present : (1) small cells, the nuclei of which 

 measure about 0'002 // in diameter. The cell bodies of 

 these hardly stain at all with either Mallory's stain, 

 methyl-blue-eosin, haematoxylin and eosin, iron haema- 

 toxylin or Romanowsky's stain. When the latter reagent 

 is applied to a smear made from the tumour, the cell 

 bodies belonging to these nuclei can just be seen. 

 (2) Larger cells, staining red with Mallory's combination, 

 and measuring about 0*005 mm. Some of these cells are 

 represented in fig. 1, PI. III. In the parts of the 

 tumour where the connective tissue fibres are undergoing 

 the modification mentioned above, some of these cells can 

 be seen (fig. 6, PI. II) between the adhering bundles of 

 fibres, or even included in the structure formed by the 

 fusion of the latter. 



