ON CERTAIN SPONTANEOUS CHICKEN TUMORS AS MANIFESTATIONS OF A SINGLE DISEASE : I. SPINDLE-CELLED SARCOMATA RIFTED WITH BLOOD SINUSES.

Two spontaneous chicken tumors, unlike in several important respects, have given rise on transplantation to neoplasms of identical character. The spontaneous growth, No. 18, situated in the gizzard, was a spindle-celled sarcoma rifted with blood sinuses into which it extended, with result in what may be described as an intracanalicular pattern. The metastases, which were in the voluntary muscles, showed the same peculiar structure. Tumor 38, occurring in the subcutaneous tissue of the groin, was a solid, spindle-celled sarcoma of rather close texture, with few blood vessels. Here and there were small areas of softening, and at its center was a large degeneration cyst with ragged walls, containing a clear fluid. There were no metastases. The transplantation tumors from both growths have been characterized by slow growth, tendency to metastasize to the skeletal muscles without involvement of the lungs, and a structure which at one time is that of a very regular spindle-celled sarcoma containing many bands and ribbons of collagen, and at another that of a sarcoma rifted with blood sinuses like the spontaneous tumor No. 18. At present the two strains are practically indistinguishable in appearance and general behavior. Both are caused by filterable agents. The agent causing No. 38, unlike that causing No. 18, retains its activity in tumor tissue which has been dried or glycerinated; and in a Berkefeld filtrate it is much the more active in causing tumors. These differences can hardly be thought of as constituting a fundamental distinction between agents which, to judge from their effects, are almost undoubtedly different strains of a single disease cause. That chicken tumors of markedly different type have different filterable agents as their cause has been proved by experiments already reported. The present findings make it probable that, within certain limits, tumors of rather various character may be dependent upon a single agent. This assumption greatly simplifies the etiological problem. But the truth of the assumption for other instances than those described in the present article can only be determined by the study and comparison in many hosts of the disease-complexes of which each spontaneous chicken tumor is to be considered as an individual expression.