Das tuberkelähnliche Lymphadenom (Der cytogene oder reticulirte Tuberkel) (1871)

A 90-page pathology monograph with two plates by Prof. E. Wagner of Leipzig, published in 1871. Wagner describes a growth he calls the 'tubercle-like lymphadenoma'. It looks like miliary tubercles to the eye but under the microscope is made of reticular (cytogenic) tissue. He found it most often on the pleura, and also in the lungs, airways, liver, kidneys, other serous membranes and lymph glands. He gives autopsy cases with nodular and diffuse thickening of the pleura and pleural effusions. One case, a woman autopsied in September 1869, had a greatly thickened pleura lined with unusual epithelium-like cells. Wagner says it first made him think of an epithelial cancer. Later historians have cited Wagner's pleural descriptions among the earliest accounts of what is now recognized as pleural mesothelioma. The text does not mention asbestos.