On some resemblances of crown-gall to human cancer / Erwin F. Smith.

  • Erwin Frink Smith
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On some resemblances of crown-gall to human cancer / Erwin F. Smith. 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.

    9/16 (page 7)
    bryonal character of its luxuriant granu- lations and in its predilection for young plants and rapidly growing tissues it is more like sarcoma. The growth is a hyper- plasia rather than a hypertrophy, although occasional groups of large cells occur. There can be no doubt as to the develop- ment of new vessels in the growing tumor. This is shown clearly by the anatomy of the secondary tumors. Whether the ves- sels are ingrowths from the surrounding tissues, or outgrowths from the tumor strand, or both, as would seem to be the case, must be left for further inquiry. The anatomy is unlike that of club-root of cab- bage, where the growth consists of an enormous enlargement of a comparatively few infected cells. I think, therefore, that we have in crown- galls a striking analogy to what occurs in malignant animal tumors, namely, to re- capitulate, the cell itself a disturbing force, i. e., an enormous multiplication of certain cells of the body without reference to phys- iological needs and in opposition to the best interests of the organism; a non-cap- sulate tumor, with absence of abscess cavi- ties and of plainly visible parasites; per- ipheral growth and a well-developed stroma consisting of vessels and fibers; from this primary tumor the development of strands of tumor tissue upon which sec- ondary tumors develop; in the secondary tumors a strong tendency to take on the structure of the organ in which the pri- mary tumor has developed; frequent if not necessary origin of the primary tumor in bruises, wounds or irritated places; com- plete recovery if all the tumor tissue is extirpated, failure if it is not; in some cases spontaneous recovery. The chief dif- ference so far made out is that in case of cancer cells we know nothing whatever as to the cause of the abnormal growth,7 T ‘ ‘ Some unknown force, the essential nature of which has so far completely escaped our knowl- whereas in case of these overgrowths on plants we have definitely proved them to be due to the presence of an intracellular schizomycete which we have many times isolated and reisolated in pure culture and by means of which we can reproduce the disease at will. The question now arises whether animal tumors might not be produced by means of the crown-gall organism. I might state here that while I believe cancer to be due to some intracellular microorganism which in its physiological peculiarities, action on the cell nucleus, etc., is like the one we have discovered, I do not maintain the over- growths in warm-blooded animals to be due to this particular organism, for the reason that its maximum temperature for growth (daisy strain) is a little under the blood temperature of such animals. In thinking over the matter it seemed to me not un- likely, however, that with this organism I might be able to produce tumors in cold- blooded animals, and so four years ago I attempted to do it. I will show you only a slide or two made from an inoculated fish. I used for this purpose brook trout and in a very considerable portion of my inocula- tions I succeeded in producing ulcers in the deeper tissues where the needle entered. In this instance the needle entered the belly wall of the fish. The wound healed externally, but at the end of 21 days when the trout was dissected there was a well de- fined inner growth (proliferation nodule) in the connective tissue between the muscles with formation of giant cells. There were also when dissected two external sore spots, one below the pectoral fin and the other below the anal fin, both of recent occur- rence, but no throat or gill ulcers in this edge and our comprehension, is capable of calling forth this latent power of proliferation, and the germ [cancer cell] begins to grow out of itself, like a seed that has been buried in the ground.” (Diirek.)