The Bradshaw lecture on the pathology of cancer : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1884 / by W.S. Savory.

  • Savory, William Scovell, 1826-1895.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bradshaw lecture on the pathology of cancer : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1884 / by W.S. Savory. 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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    section of cancer or sarcoma in a typical state has characters, of course, by which it may be distinctly recognized. These characters of arrangement have been described over and over again, and are familiar to all. But to these I do not now refer. My remarks here are confined to the primary forms themselves ; to the physical characters of the ultimate elements of structure, not to the mode in which they are arranged ; in short, to the so-called cells, either in their typical form or in some of the earlier changes they undergo. So, then, of cancer and its allies—of the various forms of sarcoma—it may be affirmed that they consist of structural elements which, in their sensible characters, correspond to certain natural structural elements in a rudimentary state. Now if we pass, for an instant, from the study of tumours to a comparative view of the phenomena of life, either in the vegetable or the animal world, we must remark in various individuals, of either kingdom, a wide diversity of structure; not only a wide diversity in separation of organs, or in complexity of com- bination, but a diversity yet wider, even more general, in truth universal, in the ultimate anatomical elements of which they are constructed. From a simple cell, or cluster of cells, we pass through various tissues which have been reached by further stages of develop- ment, until we arrive at the most elaborate, or highly specialized structures ; for instance, at the spiral vessels of plants, and at striated muscle of animals. Again, by such a survey, the fact is revealed that there is the widest difference in the power of multiplica- tion, or propagation, among the various forms of animal and vegetable life ; and, furthermore, that a relation may