Cellular pathology : as based upon physiological and pathological histology; twenty lectures delivered in the Pathological Institute of Berlin during the months of February, March, and April, 1858 / by Rudolf Virchow; translated from the second edition of the original by Frank Chance; with notes and numerous emendations, principally from ms. notes of the author.
- Virchow, Rudolf, 1821-1902.
- Date:
- MDCCCLX. [1860]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cellular pathology : as based upon physiological and pathological histology; twenty lectures delivered in the Pathological Institute of Berlin during the months of February, March, and April, 1858 / by Rudolf Virchow; translated from the second edition of the original by Frank Chance; with notes and numerous emendations, principally from ms. notes of the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
486/546 (page 456)
![450 iiidividuiil parts of tlie sexual organs, early ])eiisli in the course of ordinary life, whilst others retain their existence throughout the whole of life. So it is also with patholo- gical new-fonnations. At a time when certain forms have long since entered upon their course of retrogressive me- tamorphosis, others are only just beginning to attain their full development. In the case of many new-fonnations, retrograde metamorphosis begins comparatively so early, nay constitutes to such a degree what is ordinarily met with, that the best investigators have looked upon its dif- ferent stages as the really characteristic ones. In the ease of tubercle, for example, we find, that the majority of all modern observers who have made it their professed study, have taken its stage of retrograde metamorphosis for the really typical one, and that inferences have hence been drawn with regard to the nature of the whole process, which with equal right might have been drawn wdth regard to the ^ different stages of the retrograde metamorphosis of pus ^ and cancer. We are as yet able in the case of very few elements to give in numbers with absolute certainty the average length of their life. There manifestly exist variations similar to those we meet with in normal organs. But among all ^ pathological new-formations with fluid intercellidar sub- stance there is not a single one, wdiich is able to preserve i its existence for any length of time, not a single one, whose 1 elements can become permanent constituents of the body, 3 or exist as long as the individual. This may no doubt % seem doubtful, because many forms of malignant tumours || subsist for many years, and the individual retains them £ from the time of their development until his death Avhich u may perhaps occur at a very advanced age. Bui the Jj- tumour as a ivhole must be distinguished from its individual gjarts. In a cancerous tumour which lasts for many years, the same elements do not last the whole time, but within](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21308986_0486.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
