140 THE ENZYME TREATMENT
OF CANCER
has
been destroyed. It must be an extract of the pancreas gland as free as
possible from trypsin. (Compare Chapter VII.)
This
treatment is not intended for use against benign tumours, which are composed of
real or somatic tissues, and which are not killed or broken up by trypsin.
Owing to this, the injections furnish a chemical test of the true nature of a
tumour, whether it be benign or malignant. Thus, some pathologists look upon
adenomata as benign, or at all events as only potentially malignant. To my
mind, they are “imitation tissues,” and I should anticipate that any and every
adenoma would yield to the chemical test.
Owing
to the circumstance that the cycle of life is really a continuous procession
and succession of unicellular organisms, germ-cells, from which there arise
asexual generation or trophoblast, and embryo or sexual generation, the tumours
can be classified into three groups, as follows
1. Embryomata (benign neoplasms). —
Pathological manifestations of some greater or less portion of the sexual
generation—” the embryo.” They are composed of real tissues—that is, normal or
somatic (“ embryonic “) cells or tissues. At its basis each is a greater
or less portion of a twin, triplet, etc., identical with the individual
containing it. They are not endowed with indefinite powers of growth, and they
nourish themselves like other normal tissues.
2. Amphimyxomata (malignant
neoplasms).—Combinations of embryomata and trophoblastomata. Pathological
manifestations or attempts to reproduce the whole life-cycle, including
trophoblast and embryo. They are transitional forms. (The mixed tumours of
Wilms are not all malignant, some being merely embryomata.)