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Show OF TUMOURS. 08 there is dis. there is something out of course and unnatural ; an impulse of aetiease ; the vessels have not merely received vity, but there is a new influence. If the diseased action I call that exosto« should here build up a large protuberance, bone with the sis runoun, though it be of the same blood and original part. are not so gross The changes which take place in the body ; we can see no and palpable as to be manifest to our senses one which will be difference often in a mild ulcer, and in take only the pregnant with mortal contagion. If we are to the difference grosser distinctions of matter as pointing out dithperpetual betwixt tumour and swelling, we shall be in it is only the culty; if an exostosis be no tumour because and bone a tuoriginal matter, is an accumulation of flesh ~":' 'N‘fiwf..w '_ "4., ‘ur bone, and membranes, mour .9 or, is a large tumour, full of r" " 209 OF TUMOURS. soft parts, to be and vessels, and flesh, which grows amongst a tumour when considered as a proper tumour ? or, is it only what we see 1n e unlik it contains grey matter, or something last circumstance the natural structure of the body 2' If this many circumbe taken as the true definition of tumour, then tendency of the from fatal scribed swellings of specific action, which resist all that action, or the peculiarity of their place, the knife, are known means of cure, and absolutely require deration in consi t rtan impo left still to be classed. Another n in the actio practice is, that the place and tendency of the is clear ; but If tumour being ascertained, the line of practice of internal strucour attention be drawn to the distinctions sponding outcorre ture only, to distinctions which have no g body, we are ward sign to mark their existence in the livin . led from the rule of practice, and left without a guide step of first very the in on Surely there is great imperfecti genus being known Mr. Abernethy's classification ; his first lable part of the from the tumour being composed of the coagu This vascular coagblood rendered very generally vascular. al changes of the ulable lymph is the fore-runner of all natur in describing he parts in health and vigour. So Mr. Hey, origin of the tumour fungus hzematodes remarks, that the must have been extravasated fluid become organized; and then he asks, was it blood mixed with a large proportion of lymph .9 neither the microscope, nor chemical analysis of the solid or fluid contents of tumours, will ever serve to point out the character which is to guide us in practice ; we must take into consideration the peculiarities, constitutional and local, and as far as we are able endeavour to recognize the external character, and study the course of the disease, as the most likely to make us acquainted with the peculiarity and tendency of the action. In this investigation we must often recur to the dissection of the tumour, and to the in- ternal structure as our guide ; but the knowledge of the internal structure can be useful only as it directs our enqui~ ries, or enables us to judge of the patient's danger by the outward sign. I hope my reader will allow me to detain him from the practical part of this tract a little longer, in order that I may explain my opinion on the subject of tumours formed out of coagulated blood. The observations of Mr. Hunter on this subject being, as I think, the foundation of the common opinion, the following excerpt may be taken as erplanatory of it :- " In the course of his experiments and observations, instL-r tuted with a View to establish a living principle in the blood, Mr. Hunter was naturally induced to attend to the pheno- mena which took place when that fluid was extravasated, whether in consequence of accidental violence, or other circumstances. The first change which took place he found to be coagulation: and the coagulum thus formed, if in con.tact with living parts, did not produce an irritation similar to extraneous matter, nor was it absorbed and taken back in4 to the constitution, but, in many instances, preserved its liv~ ing principle, and became vascular, receiving branches from the neighbouring blood-vessels for its support ; it afterwards underwent changes, rendering it similar to the parts to which it was attached, and which supplied it with noun rishment. VOL. 114 I) 2 ' "JW "um VlUNl M959", u g I |