Proceedings of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

  • Bashford, Ernest Francis, 1873-
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Proceedings of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 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.

    4/8 (page 436)
    attention was directed to the alternation of positive and negative phases in the growth of propagated tumours. That immunity or resistance can really be induced was shown by the results of interposing an inoculation of normal tissue or of spontaneous tumour between a primary successful inoculation and a subsequent one. It was also shown that, while a large dose (O’l c.c.) of tumour tissue may be followed by transitory growth and absorption, a small dose (0-05 c.c.) was followed by progressive growth. This fact demonstrated that one had to deal with mice which were not naturally resistant but had been rendered so artificially. From large series of experiments the following conclusions were drawn as to the nature of the protection of one tumour against another: The resistance induced by the absorption of carcinoma is effective against the tumour primarily inoculated, and to a much higher degree than against other carcinomata. It is often absolute for the same tumour. No evidence has as yet been obtained that the absorption of carcinoma tissue increases the resistance to sarcoma to an extent surpassing that following the absorption of normal tissue. As regards the absorption of sarcoma, it was remarkable that the mice were thereby protected against carcinoma to a very high degree. These results were in contradiction to those of Ehrlich, who found a “ pan- immunity,” i.e. the protection between carcinoma and sarcoma was mutual and of equal degree. Of the normal tissues of the mouse, skin alone was able to induce a nearly absolute degree of protection against squamous-celled carcinoma. The rest of the tissues, either collectively or individually (e.g. mamma, reproductive tissue), were devoid of this power: the relation of cancerous with gametic tissue was less than with the somatic tissues. The fact that the rest of an embryo protected against squamous-celled carcinoma to a much less extent than did its skin was incompatible with the view that various ferments were responsible for the protection induced. Anomalous results obtained gave evidence that growth could not only be hindered but also favoured by previous treatment with normal tissues. Whereas protection was only conferred by tumours or tissues of the same species, growth could be favoured by previous treatment with tissues of strange species. By heating skin previous to inoculation the protection was converted into a condition favouring growth. It could no longer be doubted that the development of a tumour from a very circumscribed area might be determined by constitutional conditions favourable to growth. The methods employed had taken the investigations beyond the regions reached by histological methods alone; they constituted really a new branch of experimental biology, enabling one to analyse the relations between the tissues of individuals of the same species. THE PROCESSES AT THE SITE OF INOCULATION IN NORMAL MICE AND IN MICE RESISTANT TO CARCINOMA. By B. R. G. Russell. The experiments were mostly done with a slowly growing adeno-carcinoma of mouse mamma. In normal mice the introduced stroma degenerates and the new stroma for the developing acini is developed from the tissues of the new host. In mice resistant to the adeno-carcinoma there is no such development of new stroma, and the graft becomes converted into a small cyst lined with a single layer of cubical epithelium. The conclusion arrived at is that in resistant mice the cancer cells were so acted upon as to prevent them calling forth the stroma reaction on the part of the connective-tissue cells.