On the origin of cancer / by Alexander Ogston.

  • Ogston, Alexander, Sir, 1844-1929.
Date:
[1873], [©1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin of cancer / by Alexander Ogston. 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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    the epidermis over the tumour, and a binding down of tliis structure, so tliat it cannot be moved backwards and forwards over it. This is equally true whether the cancerous proliferation of epithelium progresses more superficially on and between the papillae of the skin, so as to give rise to an elevated epithelioma, or extends among the subcutaneous tissue or deeper parts, so as to form a cancerous nodule of the ordinary deep description; in both classes of cases, the skin is bound down to the tumour from the very commencement, and generally presents an alteration of appearance visible to the naked eye of a close observer. The cuticle appears rough and scaly, and the true skin beneath shows through it with a purplish red tinge, so that the portion atfected offers a contrast to that in its vicinity—not very prominent, it is true, but unmistak- able on close observation. The hairs are sometimes stunted and broken, the hair-follicles hypertrophied, and the sweat-ducts present a thickening of their epithelial lining. In the case de- scribed at the commencement of this paper, several sweat-ducts were thus altered, although none were met with in the section from which the drawing was taken. I formed the impression that the tumour had arisen from a sweat-gland. Where cancer arises from the epithelium ot mucous membranes; the same hyperplastic condition is observed. In cancers of the tongue, gums, etc., which I have examined, a prominent feature under low powers has always been a greatly increased thickening of the epithelium, involving even the mucous glands; and in every case of cancer within the mouth which I have seen, the adherence and immobility of the epithelium has been a marked feature, and a good diagnostic sign. In cancers of the cervix uteri, I have been convinced of the epithelial origin of both forms ; as well of that which, confining itself to the surface, spreads into the cauliflower growth of hypertrophic papillae, separated by hyperplastic epithelium, as of the deeper form, which, still retaining its connexion with the patch of superficial epithelium (rough, hyperplastic, and immovably fixed to the tumour beneath), extends into the substance of the uterus as a circumscribed knot, differing in appearance from, although claiming the same origin as, the cauliflower epithelioma. In cancers of the mamma, which arise primarily from the epi- thelial lining of the acini and tubules of the gland, the hyperplasia appears to extend along the tubules, and produce the early retrac- tion of the nipple so prominent in this disease. In a mammary gland I recently removed, where a knot of scirrhus was embedded in a mass of ence])haloid cancer, I believe I could clearly trace the liypertrophy of the epithelial lining of the tubules into the nipple itself. It may be urged that such changes in the epithelium near cancer are nothing more tlian the results of the increased vascularity and slight inflammatory action produced by the pain and irritation usually present with such growths. But a closer examination of