VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 153 



nostril ; I examined it, and found it soft, white, and without pain ; I presently 

 pulled it out, which was done without pain or any bad accident. But after this 

 extraction, she still felt some trouble in her nose, and moisture passed with 

 difficulty from the nose to the throat. This induced me, seeing no more in the 

 nostrils, to look into the mouth, where I perceived behind the uvula, a strange 

 body of the size of half a nut, which I judged to be a portion of the same 

 polypus. Having pulled this out also, it was of an extraordinary shape ; the 

 piece by which I laid hold of it was hard, and of a dark brown : it was fastened 

 by two branches, which seemed to have taken their shape in the nose, being 

 each of them as large as a sweet almond ; their substance was softer and 

 whiter. Besides these three parts it had a little stalk, something red, of the 

 size of a cherry-stalk : there was not a drop of blood spilt, and the patient 

 felt no pain in the operation ; all trouble was removed, and the liquor passed 

 easily. 



After 2 years the patient died of a malignant fever ; and as she had some time 

 before her death complained of a new trouble in her nose, I earnestly desired 

 leave of the family to open this organ, to search out the origin of this polypus, 

 which was granted me. After opening the organ, and the adjacent bones, we 

 found nothing in all the nose, but a little piece of very soft flesh, which came 

 out of a cleft of the processus pterygoides ; following it exactly, it brought us 

 into the sinus of the upper jaw, where we perceived a ropy and clear humour, 

 in the middle of which was a body, like in figure, consistence, and colour, to a 

 greater one, which we had before taken out ; there was also a little red speck, 

 which seemed to be the root of this polypus. 



Polypuses are spongy excrescencies, which, according to authors, are formed 

 on the membrane that covers the nose within, by some alteration made there; 

 some are formed also in other parts, as in the cavities of the great veins. But 

 this membrane is more disposed to the production of them than others, because 

 it is the most spongy of the whole body, and most full of blood vessels. 



The discovery of Mr. Giles gives us to understand, that it may be produced 

 in the sinus, over which this membrane is extended, and into which it filters 

 the mucus which is spread over this organ, and for this reason probably it is that 

 it is so difficult radically to cure these polypuses. Also the extirpation of them 

 is not always so successful as it has been in this ; when they appear very red 

 and full of blood, the extirpation of them is dangerous, for fear of an hemor- 

 rhage, whicli is not easily stopped. 



VOL. IV. 



