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Scientific Memoirs by
already mentioned, had not yet commenced to ulcerate, so that the term boil
rather than sore was strictly applicable to it.
Vertical sections, including the entire area of the specimen and stained with
picrocarmine, presented the following features when examined under low powers
(vide F i g . 1 ) . I n t h e f i r s t p l a c e i t w a s e v i d e n t t h a t t h e p o r t i o n o f t i s s u e w h i c h
had been excised did not include quite the whole of the diseased area, for
although at one side the skin presented fairly normal characters, at the other a
continuous invasion of its substance by granulation-tissue was very evident.
The most conspicuous features were the accumulation of great masses of gran
-ulation-tissue, especially in the upper part of the dermis, and excessive hyper-
trophy of the superjacent epidermis. These appearances attained their maxi-
mum development in the most prominent portion of the growth and gradually
tailed off on either side. On that side where the limits of the diseased area
appeared to have been approximately reached, the continuous stratum of gran
- u l a t i o n - t i s s u e p r e s e n t i n t h e c e n t r a l p o r t i o n s b e c a m e r e p l a c e d b y i s o l a t e d p a t c h e s
of various size separated from one another by normal dermal tissue, and the hy
- p e r t r o p h y o f t h e e p i d e r m i s g r a d u a l l y d i m i n i s h e d a n d d i s a p p e a r e d . O n t h e o t h e r
side a tendency towards the same thing was evident, but, even at the very ex
- t r e m i t y o f t h e s e c t i o n , a t h i n s t r a t u m o f c o n t i n u o u s g r a n u l a t i o n - t i s s u e a n d a
certain degree of epidermal hypertrophy could be readily recognised.
Both horny and mucoid strata of the epidermis showed clear evidences of
varying degrees of hypertrophy. The former in the most prominent portion of
the growth was about 0 .01 of an inch in thickness, whilst at the relatively nor
- m a l e x t r e m i t y i t w a s o n l y a b o u t 0 . 0 0 1 . T h e m u c o i d s t r a t u m w a s e n o r m o u s l y
hypertrophied, especially as regarded its interpapillary portions. Towards the
lateral portions of the sections there was very considerable thickening of it over
t he s ummi t s of t he papi l l æ. But cent r al l y t hi s t ended t o di mi ni s h gr eat l y and
in certain sites an absolute atrophy seemed more or less to replace it, so that the
papillary tissue came to be almost or actually in contact with the under-surface
of the thickened horny layer, and it appeared evident that by a very slight
extension of the process a raw surface would have necessarily been established.
The thickness of the suprapapillary stratum at the extreme margin of the speci
- m e n , w h e r e i t p r e s e n t e d t h e m o s t n o r m a l c h a r a c t e r s , a m o u n t e d t o a b o u t
0 . 0 0 1 o f a n i n c h , w h i l e i n t h e s i t e s o f i t s g r e a t e s t d e v e l o p m e n t i t w a s a b o u t 0 . 0 0 6 .
The interpapillary processes varied extremely in size and form. At the relative-
ly normal margin of the growth, the thickness from the extremity of the process
-es to the surface of the horny stratum was about 0.009 of an inch; in the most
prominent portions it in some cases amounted to about 0.07 of an inch. In
some cases the prominences were broad, in others narrow; in some pointed, in
others distinctly bulbous; in some they were simple, in others irregularly
branched inferiorly.
Immediately beneath the epidermal stratum there was a great mass of