Round celled sarcoma of the anterior mediastinum : extensive metastases, including the brain, both choroid coats, oculo-motor and optic nerves, and external ocular muscles / by Arthur V. Meigs and G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • Meigs, Arthur V. (Arthur Vincent), 1850-1912.
Date:
[1894]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Round celled sarcoma of the anterior mediastinum : extensive metastases, including the brain, both choroid coats, oculo-motor and optic nerves, and external ocular muscles / by Arthur V. Meigs and G. E. de Schweinitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Sections were prepared, for microscopical examination, of the primary growth which lay in the mediastinum. Of this, sections from three posi- tions were cut, one taken from the body of the mass, and two including the right carotid artery—one of the eroded portion of the vessel, and the other of a portion in which the walls were still whole. Of the heart, sections were cut from two positions, one near the apex, and the other of the septum, on the anterior surface, including an artery in the pericardium. Two sections of the lung were prepared from different positions. Sections were cut of mesenteric glands, of the diaphragm, including a sessile growth upon its pleural surface, of the liver, spleen, and two from different parts of the kidney. Of the nervous system, sections were prepared of the cerebellum, of both oculo-motor, and of both optic nerves, just within the cranial cavity and before their eutrauce into the sphenoidal fissures and optic foramina; of the posterior portions of both eyes showing the nerve entrances, and of the optic nerves and surrounding muscles and nerves behind the eyeballs. The total number, therefore, of different portions of tissue subjected to microscopical examination was twenty-two, and all of them exhibited, to a greater or less extent, sarcomatous infiltration. The infiltrating material was of the commonly described round-celled variety, and in sections stained with carmine the cells seized the pigment with avidity, producing an in- tensely red color. This seems to be a marked peculiarity of the cells of sarcoma, the color generally being more intense even than that of carci- nomatous growths. The primary growth in the mediastinum, which very probably originated in some remnant of the thymus gland, presented the usual appearances of round-celled sarcoma. The only specially noticeable feature of the growth was the erosion of the carotid artery. The only iDortion of the walls of the vessel remaining upon the side where the erosion had occurred was the external fibrous coat; the muscular layer and intima had disappeared entirely. The sections of the heart showed the neoplastic matei'ial to lie more abundantly in the adipose tissue upon the surface than, any where else. It followed the lines of the connective tissue, the rings constituting the bound- aries of the fat cells being infiltrated. In places where the amount of deposit was still moderate the centres of the fat cells retained their usual appearance of being empty, but where it was great the cells had pressed inward until the spaces were filled up, and the appearance was one of a solid mass of neoplastic round cells. At the point of junction of the over- lying fat with the muscular substance of the heart, the great abundance of the neoplastic material ceased abruptly, as though it had found the in- vasion of the muscular territory more difficult. The sarcoma cells, however, were plainly to be seen amongst the muscular fibres, especially along the connective-tissue lines, but they were few and sparse as compared with the