740 
The vesicular polypi, or, as they have been 
called, hydatid polypi, are composed of masses 
of large, pellucid vesicles, filled by a trans- 
parent and slightly viscid fluid, or consist of a 
substance somewhat like the vitreous humour. 
They can be broken by a very slight force, and 
after they have discharged their fluid nothing 
remains but shreds of fine membrane, like 
films of washed fibrine. They commonly grow 
from the upper and side walls of the nasal 
fosse, and their growth is very rapid. They 
frequently also burst spontaneously, discharge 
their contents, and are reproduced ; and their 
reproduction is almost always very rapid when 
they are artificially destroyed, and the patient 
is not in other respects effectually treated. The 
thin membrane investing them is easily per- 
meable, and their size varies according to the 
rapidity with which evaporation can take place 
from them, so that they may serve as a sort of 
hygrometer, indicating by their size the relative 
quantity of moisture in the atmosphere. Their 
nature is as yet unknown; they are probably 
entirely new productions, and not, as some 
think, distended mucous follicles. 
Gelatinous polypi are more common than 
those of any other kind, and are those which 
are commonly called mucous polypi, though, 
under this term, Boyer and some others in- 
clude both these and the preceding variety. 
They are much firmer than the vesicular polypi, 
and grow in one or more distinct and circum. 
scribed masses. They are of a dull white or 
yellowish colour, soft and easily torn, com- 
osed of a fine tissue with fluid infiltrated in 
it, like anasarcous cellular membrane. Gene- 
rally they appear to have a few opaque white 
filaments running through their substance, and 
their surface and interior are traversed by long 
meandering bloodvessels. When small, they 
are nearly round and elongated; but as they 
increase they adapt themselves, as the other 
kinds also do, to the form of the nasal cavities, 
spreading towards their apertures, but rarely 
having sufficient force of growth to expand the 
firmer parts of the nose. They almost always 
grow nearer the anterior than the posterior 
nares, from about the middle of the outer wall 
of the nose, ,or from the middle turbinated 
bone, to which they are fixed by a narrow base 
more or less deeply rooted in the tissue of the 
Schneiderian membrane, and sometimes tightly 
adherent to the bone. It is only very rarely 
that this or either of the other innocent forms 
of polypus grows from the septum; but Mr. 
Hawkins has seen one example. Sometimes 
one only grows at a time, but more often there 
are several crammed together. They are co- 
vered by a fine membrane, like a thin con- 
tinuation of the mucous membrane of the nose, 
like which, also, it is said to be va Ne by 
ciliary epithelium and appears to produce 
penne im polypus of this Kind, which I re- 
cently uietinet: was composed throughout of 
a tough interlacement of fine, crooked, pale 
filaments like those composing a fibrinous coat 
of blood, in which there were thickly em- 
bedded a vast number of flat, circular, granu- 
lated cells, or cells with granulated nuclei. 
NOSE. 
Each cell was about 3th of an inch in di- 
ameter, and in each, three or four of the gra- 
nules appeared much darker than the rest. T 
whole presented on dissection a tough fibrous _ 
grain, and appeared to the naked eye much 
more highly organized than the microscope 
proved it to be. From its minute structure, 
which resembled in its general characters — 
that of many other kinds of tumours, it is — 
evident that these polypi, as well as the last, — 
are not mere changes or out-growths of 
mucous membrane, but are altogether new pro- 
ductions and belong to the class of tumours 
rather than to that of degenerated tissues. 
Fibrous, sarcomatous, or lypi are 
masses of firm, well organized, and vas 
tissue, growing like the others from a com= 
paratively small base. Their substance is of a 
pale reddish or brownish colour, and they are 
invested by a thin smooth membrane. In 
ferent examples their degrees of firmness differ, 
so that, on the one hand, it is not easy to drat 
a line between this and the i iety 
this | 
and, on the other, some specimens” 
found nearly as hard as the denser fibrous 
tissues. The base, or pedicle, of these growth 
is usually firmer and more fibrous than the res 
of their substance, and parts of them are com 
posed sometimes of tissues like cartilage « 
bone. Like the preceding they grow from th 
outer wal] of the fosse, but from the poste 
more often than from the Sc Som 
times one only is produced, so aver 
and their force and rapidity of growth are s 
ficient to stretch, if unchecked, all the 
around them, to expand and the | 
and protrude through the skin of the 
where ulcerating they may present nearly 
the characters of enaligaiiat diseases. — 
this resemblance to malignant growths becoi 
the greater from the polypus itself sof 
and growing more vascular on its surfac 
even throughout its substance. -_ 
The apparent transition from the precedi 
to this variety of eee a makes it probah 
that these also are new formations; and th 
they are sometimes firm and apparently fib 
even when they are very small, yet pe 
they are often produced by the further 
lopement of the gelatinous variety. _Mr. 
kins says that, in general, when the pr 
grows from the surface only of the 
membrane it is soft and gelatinous; but 
whole thickness of the membrane, ine 
also the periosteum, be its seat, or if it 
from a part where there is much fibrous 
as for example, near the posterior nare 
fibrous ; mn this, no doubt, is generall 
yet the frequency with which portior 
turbinated bones are pulled away in ¢ 
gelatinous polypi proves that these 
often deep attachments. ta 
What are called malignant polypi ' 
nose do not truly deserve the generi¢ 
They are cancerous diseases of the i 
membrane or of the parts situated on il 
terior, from which they gradually mak 
way into the nasal cavities. In ge era 
racters they do not differ from the simi 
EK 2 
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