CHAPTER XVIII DIAGNOSIS OF GENERAL SWELLINGS In other chapters the diagnosis of fluctuating and of pulsating tumours, and of those met with in special regions, is discussed, and it falls to us to speak here of those swellings which have not these special features and which occur more or less generally over the body. The method of examination described in the previous chapter should be followed : the surgeon should (I) determine what tissue (or tissues) the tumour is connected with, then note (2) its physical characters, and (3) its vital characteristics. These points have been considered in the previous chapter, and the reader is supposed, in what follows, to have studied that chapter.
- Tumours of the skin.— 1. If the tumour is an outgrowth from the skin, entirely raised above its surface, and therefore clearly marked off at its attached base, firm, dry (unless in a situation where it is kept moist by secretion), granular or branched on the surface, it is a wart or papilloma. These vary much in appearance, according to whether the branching processes of which they are composed are more, or less, blended together, and according to the density of their tissue.
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