Nasal polypus with neuralgia, hay fever, & asthma in relation to ethmoiditis / by Edward Woakes.

  • Woakes, Edward, 1837-1912.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nasal polypus with neuralgia, hay fever, & asthma in relation to ethmoiditis / by Edward Woakes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of tightness, often amounting to pain in the bridge of the nose. The symptom is due to pressure and distension of the boundary walls of the space by the inflammatory swellmg of the turbinated tissues, and it is as it were a cry for help from the affected region, which should not be allowed to pass unheeded. Other phenomena attending the mcipient stage of ethmoiditis are, frequent sneezing, and the flow of a clear watery discharge from the nostril. The latter symptom indicates hypersecretion from the congested lining membrane of the ethmoidal surface and cells; the former will be more conveniently considered later on. • Derangements of Taste and Smell With the progress of the disease, the senses of smell and taste become impaired or lost. This occurred in about 34 per cent of the cases observed. When the sense of smell is defective only, i.e. not completely destroyed, taste remains good. This may be explained by the fact that the volatile elements derived from the food reach the olfactory region through the posterior nasal space, which is not obstructed by the disease; the capacity to appreciate odours, however, through the anterior nares, is rendered defective by the presence of the tumefaction, which impedes access to the olfactory region from the front. This circumstance possesses a diagnostic value, inasmuch as it alters the significance of the symptom by eUminating its possible cause in a central lesion, and transfers it to its origin in some part of the nose. In rare instances false smells are excited by the presence of odoriferous substances : thus one patient complained that the smell of roast meat was always appreciated as a putrid odour, entirely destroying his appetite for animal food.