attacked. Further, the serum of forty-seven individuals who undoubtedly had no carcinoma, but who, on the other hand, had at least partly suffered from serious illnesses resulting in general loss of strength, was tested for their action upon the tissues of carcinoma. In forty-six cases no decomposition took place. Ludke and Gambaroff also announce favourable results in regard to the diagnosis of carcinoma.
Some interesting observations of Paltauf may be quoted, as specially advocating the acceptance of ferments which are specifically directed against particular substrates. The tissue of a tumour from a woman, aged 61, was not attacked by the serum of a carcinomatous patient which decomposed carcinomatous tissues, although at the same time the coagulated tissue was decomposed by the serum of pregnancy. The pathological diagnosis was as follows: Malignant chorionic epithelioma.
Bauer draws attention to the demonstration of defensive ferments in the blood serum, in cases of endemic goitre, which are able to decompose the tissues of the thyroid gland. These ferments have also been observed, even when no goitre was present, while the clinical phenomena pointed to a disturbance of the functions of the thyroid gland. We, too, have found a decomposition of the tissues of the thyroid gland in one case of myxœdema. There is no doubt that in these diseases we are dealing, not with an
