Fluid Blastemata

Fluid Blastemata, in their development to textures, obey the laws of the cell theory (Schwann's). The perfect nucleated cell, however, originates in two different ways:

(a.) The union of several elementary granules gives rise to the nucleus, and around this to the cell, with the nucleus impinging upon the wall, - the ordinary mode. Or else -

(b.) The cell originates first, - its primitive limpid contents giving rise to an endogenous nucleo-genesis - for example, in the blood, - in exudation - in colloid and medullary cancer.

Generally speaking, the nuclei equal in size those proper to physiological textures. Larger nuclei, however, and in particular oblong, free nuclei 1/100th to 1/50th th of a millimetre in length, occur likewise, - in medullary cancer, for instance. Inclosed within cells, their further development, so far as we know, commences only after the conversion of the cell into fibre. They are round, oblong, lustrous, black-edged, or dull and granulated.

The cells present every variety of size, from that of the exudation-and the pus-cell to that of the largest ganglion-cell, and upwards. They are in shape spherical, oval, lengthened by branch-like processes, rhom-boidal, polyedrical.

They mostly contain one, often two, occasionally several (three, four, or five), nuclei.

The propagation of nuclei and cells occurs either immediately out of the fluid intercellular substance, as blastema, or within a parent-cell. Endogenous nuclei and cells [brood-nuclei and cells; filial cells; intra-utricular cell-formation] from within a primary cell, and distend it into a structureless vesicle, by the eventual bursting of which they become released.

In rarer instances, we meet with secondary cell-formation around a primary cell, - an incasing of the primary cell.

The Primary Cell

The Primary Cell is either permanent or adapted for ulterior development, namely -

1. The ordinary development of the cell into fibre. This is brought about by the spontaneous elongation of a cell to a wedge- or spindle-shaped, or a caudated cell; or by the fusion of several cells, arrayed in rows or columns, and engaged in the act of elongation to a varicose fibre, the protuberances of which are eventually reduced. Fibre produced in either way may, by splitting lengthwise, subsequently break up into fibrils. In form, the fibre corresponds with that of areolar tissue, or of organic muscle. The cell-nuclei immediately form into nucleus-fibre, into elastic fibre. In this wise do fluid blastemata, under the progressive consumption of the intercellular substance, give rise to fibrous new growths.

2. The above transformation differs from the working out of the primary cell into the parent-cell, and to the production of pouch-like formations with endogenous nucleus and cell-development.

(a.) The parent-cell is a cyst-like dilatation of the primary cell, and its contents furnish the blastema for the creation of filial cells, in either of the two modes before described. When the latter have greatly increased in number, the parent-cell frequently, but not invariably, bursts, and is destroyed. Not rarely, however, it becomes the groundwork for very remarkable textures. (See "Cyst.")

(a.) The structureless parietes of the growing parent-cell acquire a fibrous texture, and thus become fundamental to the type of the alveolar texture, and to cyst formation. (See "Cyst.")

(/B.) The parent-cell is singly, or it may be in fusion with others, developed into a gibbous, lobulated, hollow body, resembling a glandular acinus.

The filial-cells enter occasionally, even within the parent-cell, into a fibrous development. Upon the dura mater, tumors are often met with seemingly of glandular texture. These consist of conglomerations of caudated cells, imbedded in a layer composed of the same elements. They are the products of a single parent-cell.

(b.) In fluid blastemata, utricular or pouch-like formations occur, similar to the tubular fibres mentioned under the head of solid blastemata, and they inclose nuclei and cells in various number. Their walls appear structureless; although, on a closer inspection, one or two nuclei, - occasionally several movable nuclei, - may be detected upon them. They occur in colloid, in scirrhus, and in sarcoma, with a fluid intercellular substance. Their functional import is, in our opinion, identical with that of the parent-cell with its brood-elements. They present the. greatest analogy with the capillary vessel and its contents, the more so that they probably originate through the fusion of nucleated or non-nucleated cells, arrayed in columnar juxtaposition. Their diameter ranges from the 1/100th to the 1/10th of a millimetre, and upwards.

We have now examined the essential elementary forms arising out of both solid and fluid blastemata. Their secondary arrangement into a texture offers equal diversity. Nuclei, cells, nay, elementary granules, display infinite variety in their arrangement, as do, in like manner, caudated nuclei and cells, and the different descriptions of fibres, in their course and in their co-ordination with other concurrent elements. These relations will have to be pointed out in the special analysis of new growths, to certain of which, peculiar arrangements naturally belong.