NASAL POLYPUS. 
20 7 
I hesitate not, therefore, to glean information, till something 
more to the point may be obtained, from authors on the patho- 
logical anatomy of man. Professor Paget says that the most 
frequent forms of polypi of mucous membranes are formed 
“ chiefly of overgrowing fibro- cellular tissue.” His remarks 
on them are as follows: 
" Nearly all the softer kinds of polypi, growing from mucous membranes? 
consist of rudimental or more nearly perfect fibro-cellular tissue, made suc- 
culent by serous or synovia-like fluid infiltrated in its meshes : the firmer 
kinds of polypi are formed of a tougher, more compact, dryer, and more 
fibrous, or fascia-like tissue. Of the softer kind, the best examples are the 
common polypi of the nose : mucous, gelatinous, or vesicular polypi, as 
they have been called. These are pale, pellucid, or opaque-whitish, pendu- 
lous out-growths of the mucous membrane of the nose, — more frequently of 
that which covers the middle of its outer wall.* * * § They are soft and easily 
crushed, and in their growth they adapt themselves to the shape of the 
nasal cavity, or, when of large size, project beyond it into the pharynx, or 
more rarely dilate it.f As they increase in size, so, in general, does the 
part by which they are continuous with the natural or slightly thickened 
membrane become comparatively thinner, or flatter ; their surfaces may be 
simple and smooth, or lobed ; they often hang in clusters, and thus make 
up a great mass, though none of them singly may be large. A clear ropy 
fluid is diffused through the substance of such polypi, and the quantity of 
this fluid, which is generally enough to make them soft and hyaline, appears 
to be increased when evaporation is hindered ; for in damp weather, the 
polypi are always larger. Blood-vessels enter their bases, and ramify with 
wide-extending branches through their substance, accompanying usually the 
larger and more opaque bundles of fibro-cellular tissue. Cysts full of 
synovia-like fluid sometimes exist within them._ 
“To the microscopic examination these polypi present delicate fibro- 
cellular tissue, in fine undulating and interlacing bundles of filaments. In 
the interstitial liquid or half liquid substance, nucleated cells appear, im- 
bedded in a clear or densely granular substance ; and these cells may be 
spherical, or elongated, or stellate ; imitating all the forms of such as occur 
in the natural embryonic fibro-cellular tissue, or, the mass may be more 
completely fotmed of fibro-cellular tissue, in which, on adding acetic acid, 
abundant nuclei appear. In general, the firmer the polypus is, the more 
perfect, as well as the more abundant, is the fibro-cellular tissue. The sur- 
face is covered with ciliary epithelium exactly similar to that which invests 
the healthy nasal mucous membrane, and supplies the most convenient 
specimens for the examination of active ciliary movement in human 
tissues. 
“ The soft polypi that grow, very rarely, in the antrum, and other cavities 
communicating with the nose, are, I believe, just like these.”§ 
I have a strong impression that the words penned by 
the famed Lecturer of the Royal College of Surgeons on 
polypus in man, will ere long be found equally to apply to 
* Big. 1 illustrates this fact in a most satisfactory manner. — J. G. 
t Youatt’s case of the cow, and the history appended to fig. 1, prove 
that these assertions of Paget are as applicable to animals as to man. 
§ Paget’s * Lectures on Surgical Pathology,’ vol. ii, p. 102. 
