Scientific Memoirs by
with leucocytes. The cells were particularly numerous and thickly clustered
round the vessels, for which they formed a dense sheath, and, though the majo
-rity of them were of small size, 1/2000 th of an inch in diameter, they had an endo
- t h e l i o i d a p p e a r a n c e , b e i n g m a d e u p o f a f a i r - s i z e d p l u m - l o o k i n g n u c l e u s ,
attached to a highly transparent oval or circular, apparently flattened, body or
plate. Some were, however, of larger size, and a few exceeded 1/1000 th inch in
diameter, but these were generally more opaque, and the body of the cell was in
them either finely granular or broken up into coarse, angular segments, while the
nucleus was disc-shaped and pushed to one side. Many of the smaller cells had
a double nucleus, but there were no multi-nucleated giant or myeloid cells. The
fibrous material was in part true fibrous tissue, the remains probably of the
normal constituent of the skin, but the mass of it appeared to be composed of
very much extended hyaline plates, firmly pressed together, except when they were
separated by the cells, and devoid of the elongated nuclei and the lustrous trans-
parency of true fibrous tissue. Besides the above, there were in places islands
of still smaller cells, granulation cells, in which the nucleus was either vesicular
and filled almost the whole cell, or else was broken up into three or four ovoid
shrunken fragments, as is often seen in pus-corpuscles.
Subsequently, further specimens were received, including portions of tissue
scooped out of the nostril of all five cases, and these differed considerably, at
first sight, from the first specimen, as the whole tissue was infiltrated with the
small granulation cells, and it was only in places that the endothelial appearance
of the cells and the peculiar fibrous tissue could be distinguished. Large areas
of every section made from these specimens were so entirely composed of un
-differentiated cells that it could be readily understood how the disease has by
some pathologists been classified as a sarcoma. The first specimen from the
lip would appear to be an example of the more mature growth in a situation
where it has been bound down and restricted by the density of the normal
tissues, while in all the other specimens we have to do with the free ebullition
of the growth on the yielding surface of the interior of the nostril. In all the
specimens there could, however, be no doubt of the ultimate tendency to the
formation of the peculiar endothelioid cells and pseudo-fibrous tissue, and the
large form of the cell was invariably present. Several of the specimens from the
nostril included portions of cartilage which did not appear to be altered in any
way, and in all of them there were numerous cells of large size, with a faintly
staining nucleus and very distinct, coarse reticulum throughout the whole of
the mass of the cell. These had much the appearance of siliceous cells, and
are believed to be the result of retention of the siliceous secretion from occlu
-sion of the siliceous ducts.
The above may be considered a fairly complete description of sections of
the growth, stained with carmine or hæmatoxylin, but when aniline stains are
used two other forms of cell become very conspicuous, especially with methyl-
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