432 BENIGN TUMOURS. 



they must be removed by excision, and the sac destroyed by a 

 slight touch of the actual cautery or a caustic wash. Vaginal 

 tumours sometimes consist of fat cells. The tumour from 

 which the microscopic view is taken weighed 2 lbs. 5 oz., and 

 was removed from the vagina of a cow by Mr. Cartwright of 

 Whitchurch. 



IV. — NEUROMATOUS TUMOURS. 



The term neuroma is applied to a fibrous tumour connected 

 with the nerves. In the human being they are of frequent 

 occurrence, several hundreds of them being found in one sub- 

 ject ; but in the lower animals I know of only one set of nerves 

 upon which they appear, and as the result of an operation, 

 namely, upon the plantar nerves, after their division for foot 

 lameness. 



These tumours appear within an indefinite period after the 

 operation (neurotomy) ; in one case four years had elapsed 

 before they began to form. They are of a solid firm consistence, 

 composed of a fibrous stroma, the fibres of which have a wavy 

 outline, running parallel to or interlacing with one another, 

 and having scattered throughout them numerous groups of cells 

 more or less closely packed together. Eokitansky says — 

 " These tumours lie between the fasciculi of the nerve, and are 

 interwoven with their neurilemmatous sheath ; and it is a 

 remarkable and no less important general rule, because of the 

 symptoms which may result from its presence, or which may be 

 set up by operations performed on it, that neuroma is never 

 deposited in the centre of a nerve, but at its side, so that only a 

 small part of its fasciculi is displaced. The displaced fasciculi 

 are spread abroad and stretched over the tumour, while the 

 greater mass of the nerve remains on the other side uninjured, 

 and with its fibres in connection with one another." 



These tumours are found as rounded or oval bodies, with 

 their long diameter along the course of the nerve ; varying in 

 size, but never very large ; moveable in the transverse but not in 

 the long direction. They are always on the superior division 



and to the naked eye, it presented characters simulating those of a malignant 

 disease. I had an opportunity of seeing the horse, a two-year-old carting gelding, 

 both before and after death. 



