On the origin of cancer / by Alexander Ogston.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin of cancer / by Alexander Ogston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cell masses are not affected—another confirmation of their epithelial nature. Fourthly, Epithelial tissue possesses no fibrous, albuminous, or cartilaginous intercellular substance, such as is found in the connec¬ tive-tissue structures; it sometimes, on the other hand, exhibits between its cells cementing substance, which may become horny, colloid, or mucous. In colloid cancer the cells and cementing substance have undergone the colloid metamorphosis, the cells sometimes disappearing to a great extent. Mucin is a product of both epithelium and connective tissue. Albumen, cartilage, and fibrine, are the products of connective tissue alone. The transfor¬ mations of the cancer-cell masses, and their products, bear out, in this point of view, their epithelial nature. Fifthly, Epithelial cells reproduce themselves by cell division, and the young cells so produced possess spontaneous (amoeboid) move¬ ments, and the power of sending out processes and of wandering from the place where they were formed. Hence we have an ex¬ planation of the extension and metastasis of cancer. Several observers have noted the amoeboid movements of young cancer- cells, which, in some forms, are found at an early period in the lymphatics, whence they travel to the lymph-glands. These in turn becoming the basis of the cancerous proliferation, the disease extends further along the lymphatics, and in time reaches the venous circulation, and then the dissemination of cancer becomes general over the whole frame. Sarcoma extends usually by the bloodvessels, and hence its metastases are commonly observed in the internal organs, as in the lungs, seldom in the lymphatics. Some forms of cancer do not involve the lymphatics at an early period. Thus, epithelial cancer and rodent ulcer are long confined to their place of origin. Sixthly, The investigation of large numbers of primary cancerous tumours (Waldeyer, in his second article on the subject, cites 203 examined by himself) confirms in every point their origin from pre-existing epithelium, while the examination of equally large numbers of tumours from non-epithelial organs and structures demonstrates in every case their inability to become the seats of primary cancer. In addition to these reasons, I would call attention to the behaviour of the epithelial tissues in the immediate vicinity of cancerous growths, which I have found invariably in a state of altered nutrition. The epithelium, even though not actually cancerous, is in an abnormal state of hyperplasia, and seems ready itself ] by a slight increase of activity, to reproduce the disease when the chief focus has been removed, or to participate in its extension when it is allowed to remain. In the case of cancer in the neighbourhood of the true skin—as on the prepuce, the lips, the face, the hands, etc.—one of the earliest ex¬ pressions of the disease is a recognisable amount of hypertrophy of