On the nature and primary changes of cancerous exudations, and on the development of fibrous structure in cancerous formadtions : with remartks on the diagnosis of turmours of the neck / by P. Redfern.

  • Redfern, Peter, 1821-1912.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and primary changes of cancerous exudations, and on the development of fibrous structure in cancerous formadtions : with remartks on the diagnosis of turmours of the neck / by P. Redfern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CANCEROUS AND OTHER TUMOURS. Notwithstanding the great advances which have been made in the study of the nature and development of cancerous growths by the labours of Bennett, Walshe, Muller, Lebert, Sedillot, Bruch, and others, there yet remain several considerations of great importance in pathology, for the complete elucidation of which other observations are necessary. Certain parts of the processes alluded to admit of a rational exposition, though we may not yet have been able to confirm our conclusions from analogy by actual demonstration. Amongst these mav be ranked the formation of cancerous structure from a t/ fluid blastema exuded from the blood-vessels, but not hitherto ex¬ amined until after coagulation had reduced it to a finely molecular and granular mass, as figured and described by Professor Bennett.1 Such exudations appear to occur in the same general manner as in¬ flammatory ones ; and yet, whilst every stage of effusion and growth of inflammatory products may be almost daily examined on the free surface of serous membranes, a cancerous exudation certainly occurs with extreme rarity in such a position, if, indeed, it is ever noticed as a primary affection. Further, inflammatory exudations possessing the characters of those effused under ordinary circumstances in healthy individuals, are frequently seen passing through their cus¬ tomary stages of growth in persons who are the subjects of the most extensive cancerous infiltrations, deposited from the same blood—an argument possessing great weight when urged against the doctrine of the occurrence of such morbid depositions, as the simple conse¬ quence of the circulation of diseased blood. In ordinary nutrition, development, and secretion, particular tissues exercise an undoubted powrer of election or appropriation of the various materials circulating through them, in some cases changing the arrangement of the ele¬ mentary particles of these, if they do not actually form certain sub¬ stances by their own immediate action ; and so may an organ which has either become the seat of a cancerous deposition, or predisposed 1 On Cancerous and Cancroid Growths. Ed. 1849, p. 61.