654 
ON NASAL POLYPI, 
lady is generally reputed incurable. At this epoch there is 
little to be done but to employ purely palliative means; for it is 
rare, and indeed purely fortuitous, to see any cure of the more 
advanced stages of this disease; that is to say, from the forma¬ 
tion of the morbid productions until the ulcerous destruction of 
the tissues. 
On Nasal Polypi. —Translated from M. Vatel. 
An English practitioner has given us in the present Number 
an account of the production and treatment of these tumours. It 
may not be uninteresting to compare with this the opinions of the 
French school. » Edit. 
- . ' • * j 
-- # 
On Polypi. 
I. The name of polypi has been given to those tumours which 
are developed on the surface of mucous membranes, on account 
of the analogy which it was thought existed between them and 
certain zoophytes. 
II. Polypi consist of bodies with pedicles, and adherent, by a 
base more or less large, to the parts from which they are derived, 
and .usually giving out, in divers directions, branches capable of 
reproducing the tumour, in proportion as they are singly attacked 
or the whole polypus removed by surgical measures. They ap¬ 
pear, sometimes, to derive their origin from the mucous tissue it¬ 
self; sometimes in the cellular or cellular-fibrous layer that unites 
this tissue to the organs underneath. 
III. The tumours to which the name of polypi are given, 
appear to be some of the effects of irritation of the mucous mem¬ 
brane. They may be developed on all the divisions of these 
membranes; but they are most frequently remarked in the nasal 
cavities, the sinuses, the pharynx, the vagina, the uterus, and, 
much less rarely, in the larynx, the windpipe, the bronchise, the 
oesophagus, the stomach, on the intestines, the bladder, the 
urethra, and the external auditive canal. 
The means to be opposed are,—1st. Forcible detachment; 
2d. Section or incision; 3d. Ligature ; 4th. Cauterization. 
The polypi of the nasal cavities (souris) shew themselves under 
the form of rounded bodies projecting from the nose, pyriform or 
pear-shaped; their size and consistence variable; sometimes soft, 
tearing with the greatest facility, and bleeding on the slightest 
touch; sometimes solid, and covered by the pituitary membrane. 
They are generally the result of ulcerations, wounds, fractures, 
perforations of the bone of the nose, turbinated bones, sinuses, &c. 
