282 
J. Jackson Clarke, 
epidermoidal cancers constitute the greater part of so-called epithelial 
pearls. They are distinguished by their dense texture, and their high 
power of refracting light, as well as by their size and staining reac- 
tions. In form they are most varied: round, oval, club-shaped, 
branched and contorted elements appear in great numbers in every 
section. And this is true of every epidermoidal cancer I have exa- 
mined; nay more, their homologues are present in cancers of other 
kinds, breast, testis, uterus, and stomach, as well as in the psoro- 
spermial cysts of the kidney and ureter. 
Before any histological elements can be satisfactorily discussed 
it is necessary to recall any previous descriptions there may be of 
the elements in question. Happily in the case of cancer this is not 
difficult and I have more than once feit surprised that so few of the 
authors who have come to conclude that sporozoa are present in 
cancer have made clear the relation of the bodies they regard as 
parasitic to the descriptions of the older writers. 
The bodies to which I refer were first described by Vir chow ') 
as epithelial cells in which endogenous cell-formation occurred and it 
is advisable here to recall the author’s words. 
Vircho w in the same place also compared the mode of division 
of the brood-cells to the formation of pollen-grains, a simile which 
is remarkably suitable. 
Hansemann has described in epidermoidal cancer irregulär 
mitoses which agree completely with forms I have observed in the 
free cells of which I am speaking, and this author has framed a 
hypothesis that irregulär mitosis leads to the formation of hypo- 
chromatic nuclei which are associated with a loss of differentiation 
and a gain of independence on the part of the cancer-cell. Hanse- 
mann has not however accounted for the „brood-cell“. 
Amongst these bodies, generally regarded as degenerated cells, 
are some which present indubitable mitotic figures with achromatic 
filaments 1 2 ) such as the one shown in fig. 1. Such bodies certainly 
indicate vital ativity, and are I think incompatible with the idea of 
degeneration. 
Others of these free cells present another phase of mitosis such 
as is shown in fig. 2. The cyanophile and erythrophile portions of 
the nucleus are in the form of fragments rather than of filaments 
and the portion of the cell which immediately surrounds them no 
longer takes the red stain. 
Others against of these free bodies show a peculiar reticulation 
which usually Starts in the central part of the cell and shows signs of 
fragmentation into large divisions, examples of this phase of are shown 
1) Virchow, Virchow’s Archiv. Vol. III. p. 221. “Es ist endlich noch eine Er- 
scheinung zu erwähnen, welche mit der endogenen Bildung beim Krebse zusammenfällt, 
nämlich die Entstehung konzentrischer Schichten um Bruträume. Insbesondere in 
epidermoidalen Krebsen und Cancroiden sieht man nicht selten eine Art von alveolärem 
Bau, indem in einem Hohlraume entweder ein einziger Brutraum mit endogenen Kör- 
pern (Fig. 5) oder ein ganzes Nest kleinerer Bildungen (Fig. 6) sich befindet, welche 
von konzentrischen Schichten in verschiedener Mächtigkeit umlagert sind.” 
2) The achromatic filaments are omitted in the figure. 
