59

Paul Broca

Illustrated Autograph Letter Signed, "PBroca," to "My dear friend," in French, with small ink drawings.

The letter, complaining that Aristide Verneuil failed to bring the promised device for treating fractures and inquiring whether one could be built and shipped to him, acknowledging receipt of a study on the esophagus and reporting that it was sent to a committee for review, acknowledging receipt of the tumor sample and explaining why he believes the tumor is likely not cancerous. The drawings, diagrams depicting clusters of cells removed from a tumor at various magnifications, each labelled with a holograph caption, at lower left of second page, 2½x3 inches overall. 3 pages, 8vo, written on a folded sheet; faint scattered foxing, folds.

Paris, 6 December 1869.

  • Notes: "The traitor, [Aristide Auguste Stanislas] Verneuil, who promised he would bring me a glossocomium ["glossocome": box for treating fractured limbs], which we were supposed to make on the model of those in your hospital, came back from Bordeaux without having given a thought to his purpose. Please see if there is a way to have the apparatus built and shipped to me.
    "Lanelogue's [Odilon Lannelongue?] study on the lancing and shrinking of the esophagus was received on 15 November and sent to a committee consisting of [Eugène?] Follin, Verneuil, and Giraldés.
    "Your tumor arrived in good shape. . . . [T]he microscopic elements of the tumor are not free; . . . that alone is already a strong indication that we are not dealing with cancer.
    "Cancer elements do not cling to one another, they do not form a tissue. . . . See . . . the small fragments . . . first with an enlargement of 100, then 200, 300, and 500. . . .
    "Under strong enlargement you will observe that there is no wall (A); but . . . all the cells are glued together, thereby forming a tissue.
    "A good number of them are free; that is the case in B; the others, C, are clearly fibroplastic elements; there are also . . . a very small number of cells with a nucleus like D. Those are the cells that could be thought to be cancerous. But they connect through intermediary forms . . . so that my diagnosis is as follows . . . .
    ". . . I think we have a case of ganglionic hypertrophy. . . ."
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November 6, 2025 12:00 PM EST
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