63 



NASAL POLYPUS. 



Polypus is the name given to an excrescence or tumour 

 growing from a mucous membrane by a narrow part or 

 neckj called its pedicle. It is a very rare occurrence in 

 horses. Bat a single case has come under my own obser- 

 vation. It was brought to Mr. Field^s infirmary. A red, 

 flesh-like, globose tumour, having a smooth shiny surface, 

 and being about the magnitude of an Orleans plum, de- 

 pended out of the near nostril of the horse for the space of 

 three or four inches, there being apparently quite as much 

 or more of its substance within as without the nose. It 

 originated, it was said, in a blow upon the part. 



Vegetius has a chapter (xxxviiij p. 177) in his work on 

 the subject " of a horse affected with polypus," wherein he 

 says '^ the horse will be strangled by the stoppage of the 

 passage of his breath. He will snore, and humid mucus will 

 flow out of his nostrils. Manifold are the dangers of the 

 distemper. I have nothing of my own to offer on the subject. 

 A good article, penned by Youatt, appeared on it in the 

 Veterinarian for 1831, under the signature of T., from 

 which I extract the greater part of what follows : — 



The true polypus is attached to mucous membranes, and 

 is usually found in the nostrils, the pharynx, the uterus, or 

 the vagina. It usually adheres to some portion of the 

 superior turbinated bone, or it has come from some of the 

 sinuses connected with that body. It escaped, while small, 

 through the valvular opening under the superior turbinated 

 bone into the cavity of the nose, and there has attained its 

 full growth. The polypus of the quadruped is not the com- 

 pressible elastic fungous one (polypus elasticus), w^hich is 

 described by writers on human surgery as occupying the 

 nostrils of their patients. The bleeding polypus is not 

 known ; but the small portion of bloody fluid that often 

 appears at the nostril proceeds either from the vascular 

 mucous membrane with which the tumour is surrounded, or 

 from the membrane of the surrounding cavity abraded by 

 long and violent pressure. 



