Neurocytoma or Neuroblastoma, a Kind of Tumor Not Generally Recognized

The object of this paper is to call attention to a group of tumors, the nature of which has hitherto escaped general recognition, and to point out their distinguishing characteristics. These tumors are rich in cells which may vary nmch in size and shape. They may be pervaded by connective tissue by which the cells are arranged in more or less definite alveoli. Blood vessels accompanied by connective tissue are also present. The essential cells of the tumor are considered to be more or less undifferentiated nerve cells or neurocytes or neuroblasts, and hence the names neurocytoma and neuroblastoma. They are considered to be neurocytes or neuroblasts for the following reasons: I. The cells, at least in places, are associated with delicate fibrils,. often of considerable length, which do not stain like neuroglia, collagen or fibroglia fibrils by Mallory's methods, and which are like the fibrils occurring in the "an lage" of the sympathetic nervous system. 2. The cells associated with these fibrils have the same morphology as the cells from which the sympathetic nervous system and the medulla of the adrenal develop, and which are regarded by embryologists as arising from migrated primitive nerve cells. They are generally small, with round nuclei rich in chromatin, and have a relatively small or imperceptible amount of cytoplasm. Some of them may be of piroform shape and their cytoplasm may be prolonged into filamentous processes like the fibrils referred to above. 3The cells and fibrils are arranged in places in ways more or