Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lectures on the pathology of cancer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.
21/184 page 7
![NOMENCLATURE classification is based on facts which can be observed and not on any theories which may vary from time to time. Many attempts have been made by different authors to fashion a classification of tumours on an embryological basis but they all fail when put to the test. To my mind a classification based on embryology is unscientific and useless. A classification should always be based on facts and not on theories. We do not, for instance, classify common objects according to their ultimate derivation but according to their structure or the uses to which they are put. Who, for instance, would classify metal goods according to the mines from which the metallic ore was obtained ? Yet this is exactly comparable to a classification of tumours on an embryological basis. Another advantage of this scheme is the fact that the classes Histiomata and Cytomata correspond to the classes distinguished clinically as simple and malignant tumours. Each kind of tissue is represented by a tissue tumour and every kind of cell by a cell tumour. Nomenclature. The different kinds of cells are named by adding the termination -cyte to a root expressing the nature of the cell according to the following scheme :— A. Indifferent cells, B. Epithelial cells, C. Connective tissue cells, BLASTOCYTES EPICYTES. Fibrous tissue cells. Cartilage cells, Bone cells, Fat cells, etc. FIBROCYTES. CHONDROCYTES. OSTEOCYTES. LIPOCYTES. etc. DESMOCYTES. D. Bone marrow cells, MYELOCYTES. Spleen pulp cells, etc. etc. etc. E. Free cells. Blood, Lymph, etc. LEUCOCYTES. ] ERYTHROCYTES. ^ALETOCYTES.* LYMPHOCYTES. J F. Nerve cells, G. Muscle cells, NEUROCYTES. MYOCYTES. * Ak-JTrjs Wanderer. MESOCYTES.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20996500_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
