POLYPUS. 167 



Any ulcer or carious condition of the meatus should be immediately 

 removed. 



In order to protect the diseased parts, a soft cap should be used, and 

 within the ear a little cotton wadding may defend the ear from injury. 



Dr. Mercer very properly remarks that, in the second or chondroma- 

 tous variety of polypus of the meatus, the treatment must depend upon 

 the concomitant circumstances. If the tumour is seated close to the 

 membrana tympani, and has a broad and sessile base, then it cannot be 

 excised or noosed with any degree of success. It must therefore be treated 

 by the daily application of the solid nitrate of silver, applied exactly to its 

 surface ; and, in the intervals of application, the use of any collyria may 

 be had recourse to. If the substance of the growth be firm and solid, and 

 possesses little sensibility, then a very speedy mode of getting rid of it is 

 to divide its substance with a small knife ; and, afterwards, by applying 

 the solid nitrate of silver, the tumour will soon be sloughed away. 



The dog is liable to polypi in the nasal cavity, in the anus, and in the 

 vagina, which it will not be out of place to mention here. 



The polypi of the nasal and of the anal cavities often show themselves 

 under the form of rounded bodies, projecting from the nose or anus. 

 Their size and consistence are variable sometimes soft, tearing with the 

 greatest facility, and bleeding at the slightest touch ; at other times, solid 

 and covered with pituitary membrane. They are generally the result of 

 ulcerations, wounds, fractures, perforations of the turbinated bones, sinuses, 

 &c. These polypous productions obstruct the passage of the air, and more 

 or less impede the breathing. They are best extirpated by means of a 

 ligature, or circular compression, on the pedicle of the polypus, and 

 tightened every second day. 



We may discover the presence of a tumour of this nature in one of the 

 nasal passages, when, on putting our hand to the orifice of the nostril, 

 there issues little or no air ; or when we sound the nostril with the finger 

 or a probe, or examine it on a bright day. 



The methods of destroying polypi in the nasal cavity vary with the 

 texture, size, form, and position of these excrescences. Excision with 

 the bistoury, or with scissors, may be tried when the polypus is near 

 the orifice of the nostril, and particularly when it is not large at the base. 

 Excision should be followed by cauterization with the red-hot iron, by 

 which a portion of the base of the tumour is destroyed, and which could 

 not be reached by a sharp instrument. To succeed in these operations, it 

 is frequently necessary to cut through the false nostril. The edges of the 

 wound may afterwards be united by a suture. 



The ligature, or circular compression, exercised immediately on the 

 pedicle of the polypus, by means of a wire or waxed string, and directed 

 into the nasal cavity by means of a proper instrument, may be tried when 

 the polypus is deeply situated, and particularly when its base is narrow. 

 But, for this operation, which is difficult to perform, and which may be 

 followed by a new polypous production, when the base is not perfectly de- 

 stroyed, we may substitute the forcible detachment, especially when we 

 have to act on vascular and soft excrescences. 



The Italian greyhound is strangely subject to these polypi in the matrix 

 or vagina. The reason it is difficult to explain. 



A bitch, ten years old, was brought to the author on the 20th Decem- 

 ber, 1843, with an oval substance, as large as a thrush's egg, occasionally 



