On the microscopic pathology of cancer, (with a woodcut) / by John Houston, M.D.

  • John Houston
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the microscopic pathology of cancer, (with a woodcut) / by John Houston, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    having the appearance inside the stomach of a con- crete jelly, and on the outside that of a mass of hyda- tids, varying in size from a mustard seed to a cherry. There vrere no adhesions to the parts around ; and of No. 126, it is said that The interior is soft and gelatinous like frog'spawn ; the exterior, which is free from any unnatural adhesions, may be aptly com- pared to the ovary of some fish in which the turgid ova shine through their transparent investment; with this difference, that in the disease the corpuscles vary much in size, whilst in the ovarium they are uniform. Preparations A. c. 403, 404, 405, and 405, are exam- ples of this disease engaging the peritoneum. Delinea- tions of it may also bfe seen in Cruveilhier's Anatomie Pathologique, liv. 10, tab. 4; and in Carswell's Pa- thological Anatomy, fasc. 3, plate 1, fig. 8. We have, in our museum, a series of preparations comprising nearly all the bones of an individual af- fected with carcinoma alveolare. The bones are per- forated with numerous holes, which, in the recent state, were filled with the soft gelatiniform cells of the cancer. [See E. a. 345, et seq.] My friend, Mr. Smith, exhibited to this society, on a former occasion, an interesting series of the same kind, now deposited in the museum of the Richmond School of Medicine. Carcinoma medullare (one of the varieties of ence- phaloid, and better known by the name of fungus haematodes,) like the foregoing, consists of two elements, a contained part, the cancerous matter, which giyes the medullary or cerebriforra appearance to the whole, and a containing part, consisting of denser septa which divide the mass into lobes and lobules. These septa are usually of delicate texture, and rarely fibrous as in scirrhus. There is much difference in the con- sistence of different parts of the tumour. The mass, generally, is usually of a pink tint, and is marked by the presence of numerous blood-vessels. Patches of effused blood are likewise often observable. Cruveil- hier affirms that all the vessels visible in such tumours are veins ; but, from the bright red colour of the blood which they contain, other pathologists are dis- posed to regard them as arteries. This variety of the disease is usually lobulated and irregular, forming tumours which increase in number and size with great