Cases of vascular tumour of the urethra, with remarks / [Henry Burford Norman].

  • Norman, Henry Burford, 1819-1900.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of vascular tumour of the urethra, with remarks / [Henry Burford Norman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the meatus, or pediculated and pendulous; sensitive to the highest degree, or as in one instance quoted (case 10), not even sensible. Their sensibility bears no relation to their size, unless it be in the inverse ratio; the smallest excrescence certainly gives equal pain and distress with the largest. 3. Little has been made out in relation to the intimate structure of these growths. Boivin and Duges call them cellulo-vascular. Mr T. S. Lee says they u are entirely made up of vessels, and their con¬ necting cellular tissue.” Warner says one of his, which he examined, u consisted of a number of fibres,” and the excrescences removed by Dr Davis, examined in water, showed a fibrous structure.1 The following is Mr Quekett’s description of the excrescence (case 5), which he has kindly examined for me. u The specimen was of an oval figure, about two lines in length in its long diameter. It was white, and had numerous small confervoid filaments attached to its outer surface, from having been some time in water. A thin slice from the external surface, when examined microscopically with a power of 200 linear, exhibited the same structure as ordinary cuticle; the epithelium of the outermost layer being composed of flattened scales, whilst the cut surface exhibited the same kind of cells, more condensed, and firmly adherent together; a vertical section through the middle of the mass showed several papillae of various sizes, which were very vascular, and surrounded by an investment of cuticle, which, with the papillae, made up the entire mass of growth; at the part where the papillae were situated, the growth was smaller than at the opposite extremity, as though it had been attached by a con¬ stricted neck or pedicle. The papillae, no doubt, were largely sup¬ plied with nerves, as well as blood-vessels, but their presence could not be detected by the microscope. The growth may be said, then, to consist of hypertrophied papillae, invested with a thick layer of cuticle, which projected from the general surface of the mucous mem¬ brane in a wart-like form.” This connection with the papillae will serve to explain the extreme sensibility generally possessed by these tumours. 4. They are n on-malign ant, though, according to Boivin and Duges, u they may doubtless become cancerous.” 5. They have, for the most part, an extreme tendency to be re- . produced, when cut off or otherwise removed ; but this is hardly a constant character, and may generally be counteracted. y 6. They are common to the married and unmarried, and to all ages from infancy to old age, but most frequent, probably, during the period of activity of the generative system. 7. They have been ascribed to syphilis, excessive venery, and masturbation, but I cannot discover any good ground for admitting 1 I think it very unlikely that any of these growths, from their situation, mode of growth, and general characters, possess any true fibrous tissue in their texture.
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