Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Tumours of the palate / by Stephen Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![^Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XXII.] Tumours of the palate have not attracted much notice, yet they form a group of great interest. They are of many kinds—cystic and solid, innocent and malignant. In the small space of the palate^almost every sort and kind of tumour have been observed: cysts, naevi, papillary growths ; tumours of bone and of cartilage; glandular, sarcomatous, and cancerous growths. As regards their microscopic structure, there is still much to be made out; and as regards their pathology, it is worth while to observe how closely some of them resemble the tumours of the parotid region. Thus their structure is uncertain and complex; they may contain car- tilage, bone, striped muscle, and glandular and embryonic tissues; the cells may be embryonic, myxomatous, sarcomatous, or epi- thelial. This same complex and heterogeneous structure is found in tumours of the parotid region. Again, in their slow yet uncer- tain rate of growth and in their general behaviour, some tumours of the palate are very like the tumours of the parotid region. If, therefore, Cohnheim’s theory 1 holds good of tumours of the parotid region, as Mr. Jacobson has shown in his admirable paper on the “ Enchondromata of the Salivary Glands,”2 this same theory may also be applicable to tumours of the palate. These too, may be of embryonic origin, may grow from particles of embryonic tissue which have lain long dormant. And this theory 1 “Has einfachste Hypothese Bclieint mir zweifellos sich vorzustellen, dass in einem frtihen Stadium der embryonalen Entwicklung mebr Zellen producirt wor- den, als fur den Aufbau des betreffenden Theils notbig sind, bo dass nun ein Zellenquantum unvenvendet iibrig geblieben ist, an sicli vielleicbt von nur sebr geringfitgigen Dimensionen, aber—wegen der embryonalen Natur seiner Zellen —von grosser Yennebruugsfabigkeit.”—Cohnheim. Vorlcsungcn it. Allgenu Path., 1877, i. p. 635. s Guy’s Hospital Reports, vol. xsvi. STEPHEN PAGET.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22454020_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
