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Show 0F POLYPUS OF THE NOSEa or POLYPUS m THE nose. 149 passages are freed when they are occasionally withdrawn: but they press unequally on the projecting spongy bones or septum, and destroying the membranes altogether where they press, they may make the bones carious. CHAPTER IX. By perseveringly pulling away these loose polypi, I have found the tendency to their regeneration checked. ed the consequent inflammation changed the tendency of the membrane to disease. The polypi could not in any other sense be said to be eradicated. The more dangerous polypi of the nose are firmer and more 0F POLYPUS OF THE NOSE, Frame is considerable variety in the nature of the tumours which arise from the membrane of the cavities of the face and nose. I suppos- Some are harmless ; some destructive in con sequence of their growth merely, and their forcing themselves fleshy, of a red or dark colour, and bleed when rudely touch- ed. They aremore permanent; less liable to swell and subside by slight colds or vicissitudes of the weather. This polypus I have found, by dissection, arising from all parts of amongst the cavities; others are more distinctly cancerous. The first kind of tumour is more of a general tumefaction of the Schneiderian membrane. It has the unpleasant effect only of swelling and fullness of the membrane, as from cold without pain. The colour of these polypi is greyish, like the mucus of the passages: they are quite soft, not painful or mas lignant in their nature. They swell nith every accession of cold, or even with the increased moisture of the atmosphere. When we operate upon this kind of polypus, though it seem to fill up the passages of the nose entirely; yet, with- out bringing any thing away, it vanishes under the forceps, or nothing but a few thin shreds of membrane and. blood are brought away. The nostril is cleared, the patient feels reliCV1 ed, and the air can be drawn through the nostril. to all the mucous membrane. I do not believe that it can arise from mechanical injury of the parts: the membrane seems, unfortunately, in general, disposed to the disease, when one part has become a large tumour. These polypi increase in distinct lobes; each tumour hang- ing from its stalk, consists of many lesser lobes; and these lobes (according to their position and their freedom to or; panel) enlarge successively, so that, hydra-like, when one head is cut on", which the surgeon conceives to be the whole tu- mour, in a very short time its place is occupied by another. This shows how much these tumours are restrained in their But in a growth and expansion, and teaches us the cause of their more few days the disease is just in its former state, and the patient thinks the tumour has fallen forward again; though again grasped at with the forceps, we find nothing betwixt their terrible consequences : for when they are firm in their nature, and still increasing, they press upon the bones of the face, dis- blades. This is the kind of poiypus in which bougies and medicau . .., ~.~- .. ..._.. -.\-‘~u.-- the cavity-from the lower spongy bone-from the ethmoid bone-from the antrum maxillare, It is a disease common nents can be of service; because, to raise sufficient inflamma ,. . , . won in the memb rane (ion. s, is to destroy this tendency to relaxau But by mechanical pressure, bougics can do no good i hey deceive the patient into a belief and sensation that the / tort and disfigure the countenance. But worse than this, the same pressure on the bones, destroys the membranes; is at« tended with a foetid discharge, as from rotten bones; and makes the soft bones really carious. 01', again, they produce terrible and frequent lnrmorrhagies. For as these tumours shoot backwards by the posterior nostrils, or push from the antrum, their veins are compressed |