CHARACTERISTIC ORGANISM ASSOCIATED WITH CANCER 183 
observations with pieces of normal tissue. I may instance one example : when blood 
is shed into a tube of glucose broth or ordinary broth, and an examination is made at 
the end of twenty-four hours, free spherical globules in large numbers are seen, which 
absorb aniline dyes and simulate organisms closely ; red blood-cells are also seen, from 
which the interior protoplasm has diffused through the capsule and is adherent to the 
latter in the form of globules, taking a deep chromatin stain with methylene blue. 
Case 1 is especially valuable in that typical A forms were found to develop 
in animals injected with B, while in one instance, the identical culture from which A 
forms developed in the animal, on subsequent injection as a subculture gave rise to 
what I have termed involution forms, the club-shaped and mycelium-like forms de- 
picted in Fig. 4, Plate XIV. 
Case 3 supplemented this observation by showing that the mycelium-like forms 
probably represented a stage in the development from B to A. 
Case 4 shewed that although B was the type to be specially associated with 
primary cultures, yet A might also be found in these primary cultures. 
Throughout the research the difficulties attending the culture of the organism 
have been illustrated, and also the manner in which the age of the cultures and the 
circumstances attending inoculation vary the results obtained by injection. 
I do not propose to discuss the significance of the association of this organism 
with these cases of carcinoma mammae. The morphology indicates that it belongs 
to the vegetable kingdom and is related to the lower fungi. It is of great interest to 
read in a recent communication by Alessandri* that he has isolated from two cases, 
one a fibrosarcoma of the forearm, the other a spindle-celled sarcoma of the stomach, 
cultures which, in the first stage, contained large spherical and oval forms with a double 
contour, and later, in association with these, small bodies in pairs and groups resembling 
sarcinae. The short description given of these cultures resembles in certain respects 
the account of the organism which I have given above, although these were non- 
pathogenic to animals, and the relation of the small forms to the large was not ascer- 
tained. The research reported in this paper agrees with, but amplifies considerably, 
that reported in my previous paper. In conclusion, I wish to express my indebted- 
ness to my colleagues at the Northern Hospital, Mr. Harrisson and Mr. Murray, 
for placing material at my disposal, and to Professor Boyce, Professor Ross, and Pro- 
fessor Moore for kind criticism and advice. 
* Centralb.f. Baiter, lid. xxxiii, No. 9, p. 686. 
