Abstract
Policard and Doubrow, 1 using the technique of microincineration, made a comparative study of corresponding normal and malignant tissues and found significant differences in their ashed remains. Recently it has been possible to improve the technique so that one can examine incinerated preparations with oil immersion objectives and study individual cells with great facility (Scott 2 , 3 ). Using these improvements, Horning and Scott 4 studied the distribution of the inorganic salts in the developing chick embryo and found some points of interest in connection with the Cohnheim “Embryonal Theory” of tumor proliferation. Our belief that the method of microincineration is capable of yielding information of a new kind relative to malignancy has led us to study some human medullary duct carcinomata of the breasts as well as several of the scirrhous types,† together with the transplantable mice tumors, M. 63, S. 37 and 180.
The preliminary observations of the microincinerated tumors confirmed the previous statement of Policard and Doubrow that cancerous tissue remains carbonized longer than does normal tissue. Another constant feature of the human and rodent neoplasms is the relatively greater content of ash of the tumor when it is compared with similar normal tissue. Observations with oil immersion objectives show that the nuclei contain more ash than do nuclei of normal duct tissue. This deposit is marginated and evidently represents the ash remains of an hyperchromatic condition similar to that described by Horning and Richardson 5 in malignant growths. It is interesting to note that these nuclear salts contain visibly more iron oxide than do those of normal cells. The cytoplasmic ash deposit is more abundant than in the normal.
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