OF THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE. 203 



humours, belong to the mucous membrane: such in particular 

 are the atheroma; but as will be seen hereafter, the atheroma 

 are often follicles of the skin, and in that case it is a slight 

 transformation only. 



287. The mucous membrane is subject to various sorts of 

 accidental productions, either healthy or morbid. Sometimes 

 the natural mucous membrane of the vagina, during a prolapsus, 

 that of the prepuce in phymosis, that of fistulas, and particu- 

 larly in the lungs, become more or less perfectly cartilaginous, 

 and sometimes even bony, either by transformation, or by a 

 new production. Serous cysts have sometimes been observed 

 both in its thickness and beneath it. Accidental hairs are 

 sometimes found on the surface of this same membrane. Im- 

 perfect horny productions are likewise found in it. Although 

 fatty tumours are rare in the sub-mucous tissue, they have been 

 found in it: erectile productions in this same sub-mucous tissue 

 are observable, frequently about the anus, and sometimes in 

 other parts of the intestinal canal. Finally, morbid produc- 

 tions are frequently remarked there. 



288. The cadaverous changes of the mucous membrane, 

 have been already partly indicated 274. This membrane, soon 

 after death, becomes coloured by the infiltration of the hu- 

 mours that cover it. Thus in the intestine opposite the nates, 

 it is yellowish; it presents livid marks, corresponding to the 

 larger sub-mucous veins, and becomes greenish in the gall 

 bladder, &c. 



In certain kinds of death, and in some internal parts, it is the 

 seat of sanguineous, or sero-sanguineous congestions. In death 

 from apoplexy, hydrothorax, and particularly from strangula- 

 tion, in a word, in all those cases where there is a difficulty of 

 breathing previous to death, it frequently happens that the 

 congestion, after having been at first confined to the sub-mu- 

 cous veins, and then to the vessels of the membrane itself, 

 finally proceeds to hemorrhage in the stomach and intestines, 

 as Boerhaave and Morgagni had already stated, as M. Yelloly 

 has observed,* and as I myself have several times seen, after 



* MedicO'chirurg. Transact, vol. iv p. 371. 



