88 NASAL POLYPUS. 
NASAL POLYPUS. 
A polypus, when not otherwise distinguished, represents a pear-shaped 
body, which has little sensation, but great vascularity. It is not malig- 
nant, and its growth is generally rapid. By the increase of its weight, 
the polypus ultimately hangs from the spot where it grew, 
== ~— and becomes pendant by a sort of stalk, formed principally 
by the blood-vessels enveloped in the membrane which coats 
the tumor. Such growths are peculiar to mucous tissues, 
or to all the cavities of the body which communicate with 
the external air. With regard to the horse, polypus is 
mostly met with in the nostrils. 
It is a disputed point how these growths are occasioned. 
However, no compliment is paid to the veterinary science, 
when it is asserted that, even to this day, no recognized 
plan of treatment for polypus has been laid down. Such tumors are 
allowed to be removed with the knife, by ligature, by traction, and by 
tortion; in short, as you please. ‘The first has generally been employed 
after a most butcherly fashion, slicing a piece off one day, and taking a 
morsel the next, till by slow degrees the whole was extirpated. So bar- 
barous an operation is only worthy of ancient farriery; the blood lost 
must be enormous, and the subsequent weakness of the animal must more 
than counterbalance any benefit which the operation could have promised. 
Mr. Varnell, assistant professor at the Royal Veterinary College, lately 
removed a growth of this kind in a much more surgical fashion. That 
gentleman had a knife made with an angular blade; by employing this 
instrument, he was enabled to excise the tumor with a single cut, inflict- 
ing little pain, but affording immediate and lasting benefit to the crea- 
ture. Where it can be employed, Mr. Varnell’s angular knife is to be 
recommended, as the quickest and most efficient 
means of eradication which the public possess. 
Tortion is more repulsive in appearance than in 
reality. A pair of scissors having sharp curved 
claws, at the expanded ends of blunt blades, are em- 
ployed. The tumor is seized by the claws, a little 
pressure is made, and, at the same time, the scissors 
\ are drawn slightly forward. By that means the points 
eee ASS Oe are driven into the substance, and a firm hold is ob- 
tained. The handles of the scissors are next fastened 
together with wire, or not, at the pleasure of the operator. The scissors 
are afterward made to revolve several times, and with each revolution 
A POLYPUS. 
