In 1888, Hare1 collected 520 cases of mediastinal disease, over 50 per cent of which were due to tumors, mostly of the malignant type. Riegel,2 Bennett,3 Eger,4 Harris5 and Steven6 have written monographs on the subject of intrathoracic and mediastinal tumors. Yet mediastinal tumors continue to awaken keen interest in view of their protean manifestations, their diagnostic difficulties and their generally poor prognosis. A review of the literature indicates that there is not a single pathognomonic symptom or sign on which one can depend in the differential diagnosis of mediastinal masses. As has been repeatedly shown, metastasis elsewhere in the body may initiate and dominate the symptomatology. The eight cases here reported originated in the anterior, middle or posterior mediastinum. We have had several cases of esophageal carcinoma, limited strictly to the posterior mediastinum, which we do not include in this report.
REPORT OF CASES
Case 1.—Malignant Endothelioma of the.