Lectures on nutrition, hypertrophy, and atrophy : delivered in the Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons, May 1847 / by James Paget ; reported by William S. Kirkes.

  • Paget, James, Sir, 1814-1899.
Date:
1847
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on nutrition, hypertrophy, and atrophy : delivered in the Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons, May 1847 / by James Paget ; reported by William S. Kirkes. 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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    whii-h has been gradually accumulating towards proving that these bodies—which we call nuclei when they He in cells or tubes, and cytoblasts, or cell-germs, when they lie loose, or without envelopes—that these, more than the cells, are the organs through which issue the strength and the direction of the formative process. At the lowest esti- mate, they seem to show that the existence of the nucleus is always essential to what is commonly called the formative power of the cell, or the organ developed from it; and that the office of the nucleus does not, as Schwann implies, cease when the formation of the cell is perfected. But beyond this, facts now seem to prove that we ought to ascribe to the nucleus a much greater power and influence in formation, than to the cell. It would be out of place to enter now into a long discussion of the physiology of the nucleated cell; yet I may briefly mention the reasons for ascribing an essential and principal formative power to the nucleus. And first, there is, I think, no example of development, in either structure or compo- sition, effected in the animal organism by cells which have no nuclei ; while there are many instances in which nuclei, whether contained in cells or without them, appear to assume higher forms, or to be centres and sources of formative and reproductive power. It may suffice to refer especially to the researches of Professors Henle* and Good- sirf. Those of Henle bearing on this point relate especially to the formation of what he has named nucleus-fibres, including those which, with the general characters of elastic tissue, are variously interwoven with the fasciculi of cellular tissue, the fibres of in- voluntary muscle, the membranous coats of blood-vessels, and other parts ; in all of which he may be said to have proved that these nucleus-fibres are formed, as their name implies, from nuclei^. The investigations of Mr. Simon§ also, on the glands without ducts, have shewn a wide extent of gland-function discharged, however obscurely, by cytoblasts alone or principally; and have confirmed all the evidence that they, isolated, or as nuclei to cells, are the chief agents in the elaboration of secretions. And the observations of Professor Goodsir||, in his several papers on Centres of Nutrition, on Secreting Struc- * Allgemeine Anatomic 1841, p. 102-9. t Anatomical and Pathological Observations, by John and Marry Goodsir, 1845, Art. Centres of Nutrition. % For the mode of formation and arrangement of the nucleus-fibres in the different tissues, as described by Henle, see Hcnle,loc. cit. p. 194; or Report on the Use of the Microscope in Human Anatomy anil Physiology, by Jamcg Paget: Churchill, 1842, p. 8. § A Physiological P.ssay on the Thymus Gland. London, 1815, 4to. *\ Loc. cit. tures, and on the Structure of the Serous Membranes, prove the po»ver of the nucleus both in the production and multiplication of cells, and in the formation and storing of secretions; and afford, I think, a fair ground for his ingenious hypothesis that it is their office, as centres of nutrition, to draw from the capillary vessels, or from other sources, the materials of nutrition, and to distribute them by development to each organ or texture after its kind*. To these, which are in many respects con- firmatory of the best observations of Dr. Martin Barry.f aud which are themselves confirmed by Kcellikerf and many others, I may venture to add my own observations on the development and growth of tumors. § They shew that the tumors which grow most rapidly are formed, not of cells, but of cytoblasts, or nuclei (as we should call them if they were enclosed in cells); that when cells are found they are not transi- tional but termiual forms, not giving origin by further development to any other struc- tures ; and that when the most perfect fibro- cellular and fibrous tissues exist, they ap- pear very certainly to be formed under the influence of cytoblasts alone—cells having no existence in the structure. Lastly, I may refer to what was said in a former lecture|| concerning the abundance of cytoblasts in all growing tissues, and to their persistence especially, in tissues, such as the muscular, in which, because of con- stant action, constant and peculiarly quick nutrition must go on. Now, while these among other facts make it nearly certain that the nucleus, whether of the fibre or the cell, is the chief seat or source of formative, reproductive, and se- cretive power, it is surely interesting to find that in those changes in which, by all their conditions, defective nutrition is most evidently indicated, the nucleus is absent or imperfect. I am not, indeed, yet prepared to prove, as beyond a doubt, that it is the failure of the nucleus which brings about the degeneration of the cell or fibre. At present I can only see the concurrence of the two changes, and the frequent existence of instances in which the nucleus appears pale and fading, before any fat is deposited in the cell; but it will be very strange if we do not before long find enough to prove that the defect of the nucleus is the first defect, and the essential condition of the disease. * Loc. cit. page 1. t Philosophical Transactions, 1841, &c. t Schlciden und Niigcli's Zeitschnft, Heft. ii. 1845. § Report on the Progress of Human Anatomy and Physiology in 1844-5, page 35 ; published in NO, \liii. of the Hritish and Foreign Medical Review. II Lecture iii. Medical Gazette, vol. xl. page 55.