The arrest of growth in four cases of cancer by a powerful interrupted voltaic current / by J. Inglis-Parsons.

  • Parsons, J. Inglis, 1857-1928.
Date:
1889
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The arrest of growth in four cases of cancer by a powerful interrupted voltaic current / by J. Inglis-Parsons. 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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    capacity remains dormant, or is only exercised to the extent of keeping pre-existing structures in a living condition. But let an injury or irritation to some part of the body occur, and this latent capacity ceases to be dormant, and an active formation of cells takes place, until the injury is re- paired or the irritation removed. Now this formation of new tissue is essentially a new growth, although not a tumour. The capacity for forming it is common to all the tissues of the body, and it ceases when the necessity for its continuance has disappeared. This appears to show some controlling influence, probably by the nervous system. Is it not, then, possible that all tumours are in the first instance composed of cells formed in the normal process of repair, but that, having escaped from the control of the nervous system, they take an independent life, and continue to proliferate and develop without check, just as all living cells are capa- ble of doing ad infinitum under favourable conditions ? The frequent association of cancer with a depressed con- dition of the nervous system is explained by this hypo- thesis. In other words, a tumour consists of cells which have sprung from the pre-existing cells of the body, but have escaped from the control of the system at large. The failure of even Vichow to find any reliable histological evidence in the early stages of a recent celebrated case points to the probability that the boundary line between the tumour new growth in its early stages and a normal new growth produced in the repair of an injury to the tissues is very indefinite. The close connection between the two is shown by some statistics in a recent paper by Dr. Gross,^ who found that out of some 907 cases of cancer of the breast there had been antecedent inflammation in 20 per cent., and a history of injury in 13 per cent. Dr. John Williams found microscopical evidence of the gradual transition from healthy tissue into cancer in a case described by him in the Harveian Lectures. ^ At the same time, although devoid of nerves, all tumours have some sort of vascular arrangement, and continue to receive nourish- ment from the circulation. In this respect they are on an equal footing with the rest of the body. This appears to form a formidable barrier to any measures taken to stop growth through the internal administration of drugs. International Journal of Medical Science^ March and April, 1888. - 1886 ; Case xv., p. 51.