Some comments and discussion on the paper "The etiology of tumors", read before the Pathological Society of Philadelphia, April 28, 1881 / by H.F. Formad.

  • Formad, H. F. (Henry F.), 1847-1892.
Date:
[1881?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some comments and discussion on the paper "The etiology of tumors", read before the Pathological Society of Philadelphia, April 28, 1881 / by H.F. Formad. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/20
    ON DR. H. F. FORMAD’s PAPER “THE ETIOLOGY OF TUMORS.” Pathological Society of Philadelphia, October 27, 1881. The President, Dr. S. W. Gross, in the Chair. COMMENTS BY N the paper which is the subject of dis¬ cussion this evening I endeavored to prove the proposition, v.iz., that all primary tumors, save the purely congenital neo¬ plasms, are direct products of the inflam¬ matory process. A certain class of tumors are admitted by several pathologists to be due to inflam¬ mation ; I ascribe this cause to nearly all tumors. Again, those pathologists regard inflammation only as an exciting cause, provided there is a predisposition to tumor- formation. I am inclined to regard the inflammatory process as the factor which creates this predisposition, and hence con¬ sider inflammation as a direct predisposing cause for all true tumors. This is the dif¬ ference between the view held by the real authorities of the inflammatory theory— S. D. Gross, Virchow, and Samuel—and the view which I advocate. The idea of an inflammatory origin of tumors begins of late to gain more and more ground among the working patholo¬ gists. Several of the true tumors are nearly generally admitted to be due to inflammatory causes, and, although no one expresses himself decidedly upon the sub¬ ject, I do believe that all will ultimately return to the view which the fathers of pathology originally held. My studies on the etiology of tumors are by far not completed : still, I bring the work forward in its present state in order to get the full benefit of criticism. I want advice and co-operation ; I desire to learn whether the new facts which I ob¬ tained by microscopic and other studies may admit of an interpretation different from that which I gave them. At any rate, * The paper has been published in full in pamphlet form by order of the Society. An abstract of it, entitled “The In¬ flammatory Origin of Tumors,” appeared first in Seguin’s “Archives of Medicine,” October, j88t. THE AUTHOR. I consider my work only an attempt at the solution of the question of the etiology of tumors, a question so much neglected and which imperatively demands active work and not hypotheses. Before I enter into a review of my argu¬ ments I desire here to call attention and to define more closely the purely congenital anomalies called “ tumors,” for which I am unable to prove an inflammatory cause. The question first arises, what is a tumor and what is not a tumor ? In the sense of Virchow, any circum¬ scribed elevation over a given surface, or any excessive enlargement, is considered a tumor. The products of specific inflam¬ mation, such as tubercle, gumma, glan¬ ders, lupus, and lepra, also the cysts and most of the monstrosities and the hyper¬ trophies, would consequently belong here. I consider the following neoplasms which are composed of new-formed or overgrown tissues as true tumors : Fibroma. Lipoma. Chondroma. Osteoma. Leio-myoma. Myxoma. Lymphoma. Sarcoma. Glioma. Papilloma. Simple epithelioma (as represented by corns, horns, onychoma, etc.). Carcinoma. Tyroma (tubercular tumor). Gumma. Lupus, lepra, and glanders. The following congenital neoplasms I consider as simple anomalies or false tu¬ mors : Angeioma.