DISEASES OF NUTRITION, INCLUDING NEW FORMATIONS. 765 



Class IL Diseases of Nutrition, including New- 

 Formations. 



a. hypertrophies. 



These include all those affections in which we have, as 

 primary changes, increase in size or quantity of the normal 

 elements of the skin. With us, the chief are verrucae, or 

 warts, consisting of hypertrophied papillae, pedunculated or 

 sessile, distinct in form or collected in masses occasionally reach- 

 ing a great size ; elephantiasis, hypertrophy of the skin and 

 subdermal tissues of some of the extremities, originating from 

 inflammatory changes in the l}Tiiph- vessels of the part ; and 

 fibroma, a condition of circumscribed hypertrophy, not of the 

 papillary or other j)articular part, but of all the tissues of the 

 skin. 



Verrucae and fibroma, being conditions more truly requiring 

 manual interference for their treatment and mitigation, scarcely 

 come under our cognizance in speaking of matters more 

 properly pertaining to medicine. The former are exceedingly 

 common, and in certain forms and situations very troublesome, 

 often necessitating surgical interference for their removal. 



Fibroma — Fibroma Molluscum. 



This is a condition much less frequently encountered than 

 simple papillary overgrowth. It appears as overgrowths of 

 the entire dermal, and probably subdermal, tissues; at first 

 sessile, these growths shortly take more or less of the perfectly 

 pedunculated character, appearing projected from the level 

 surface like short fingers of a glove, the skin being of the 

 natural colour and covered with hair. The tumours, which 

 are scattered over the body and limbs, are soft, and vary in 

 size from a hazel-nut to that of a fig or small orange ; when 

 taken between the fingers the inner surfaces of their walls may 

 be rubbed against each other. Proceeding from the base of 

 many of these growths, and extending to others, are cords or 

 corrugations of the skin. 



In any cases of this disease which I have observed the 

 tumours do not increase rapidly ; while occasionally some of 

 the larger become extra vascular, the skin giving way over the 



