[SECTION X.]
REMARKS ON THE AFFECTIONS OF MUCOUS MEMBRANES.
80. It is not my design to examine the affections of mucous membranes; I shall notice only some phenomena, which in these affections I believe deserve a particular attention, and the explanation of which I propose to physiological physicians.
81. Why do mucous membranes seldom contract adhesions from inflammation, since that occurs so frequently in serous surfaces under the same circumstances? Why does not the internal surface of the inflamed stomach, intestines, or bladder, adhere in its various portions like the pleura, tunica vaginalis, testis, &c.
82. Why, in inflammations of mucous membranes, is there an abundant flow of that fluid which habitually moistens them, and which constitutes the different kinds of catarrhs, whilst the source of the fluid that exhales from serous membranes is generally dried up in analogous cases?
83. Why do polypi, a kind of affection peculiar to mucous membranes, seldom arise but at the origins of these membranes in the vicinity of the skin, as in the nose, pharynx, vagina, &c., and not in their more internal portions, as in the stomach, intestines, &c.? Does this arise from the peculiarity of the texture that I have shown mucous membranes to have in the vicinity of those places where they arise from the skin, or must we attribute this fact to the more numerous causes of irritation which act upon the origins of these cavities?
84. Are not aphthæ an isolated inflammatory affection of the glands of the mucous membranes, whilst catarrhs are characterized by a general inflammation of all the parts of these membranes?
THE END.