CATARRH. — POLYPI. 419 



liable. In their interior we find, besides the dilated tubuli, true 

 cysts scattered here and there ; these are filled with a watery- 

 fluid or with mucus. The intertubular connective tissue, to- 

 gether with the walls of the tubes themselves, forms septa 

 which take up as much space in j^roportion to the degenerated 

 tubes, as the septa of an inflated lung in proportion to tlie 

 alveolar cavities. It was characterised moreover, at least in the 

 cases which I examined, by containing a large number of 

 peculiar, roundly-oval, very lustrous bodies, hardly affected by 

 reagents, whose histological significance I have not yet been able 

 to determine. 



§ 358. The '^ etat mamelonne " of the stomach leads on the 

 one hand to '^ gelatinous " or ^^ cystoid " degeneration of the 

 mucous membrane, on the other, to the formation of mucous 

 polypi. Gelatinous degeneration, which has hitherto been ob- 

 served only in the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, 

 comes about as follows : the crypts of Lieherhuhn are distended 

 with mucus, and converted into retention-cysts as big as a 

 millet-seed ; this change is limited to a circumscribed patch, 

 which may, according to Virchoiv, attain the size of lialf-a- 

 crown. The septa between adjoining cysts become atrophied; 

 the cysts coalesce to form larger cavities; until at last the 

 affected part comes to be mainly made up of mucus, the patch 

 assuming a jelly-like colour and consistency. In mucous mem- 

 branes which are more scantily provided with open glands, as e.g, 

 in the cervix uteri and external os, the affection does not proceed 

 so far as to cause gelatinous degeneration ; the distended glands 

 tend rather to project singly above the mucous surface, forming 

 vesicular elevations, or even pendulous cysts (the so-called ovula 

 Ndbothi) ; these, in conjunction with the hypertrophied mucosa, 

 which pours out an abundant secretion and is permeated by 

 dilated vessels, constitute the sum-total of structural changes to 

 which the term " chronic catarrh " or " chronic metritis " is 

 applied. 



§ 359. Mucous POLYPI, in the strict sense of the term, are 

 jelly-like tumours, permeated by thin-walled capillaries which 

 give them a reddish hue, and attached to a mucous surface by a 

 more or less distinct pedicle. In outward form they are either 

 smooth and rounded, or lobulated and fissured. When cut into^ 

 the surface of section resembles their external surface in colour 



