NEVUS, a mole on the skin, generally called a
mother's mark; also the tumour known by the name
of a wen.
All preternatural tumours on the skin, in the form
of a wart or tubercle, are called excreſcences; by the
Greeks they are called acrothymia; and when they are
born with a person, they are called naevi materni, or
marks from the mother. A large tumour depending
from the skin is denominated ſarcoma. These appear
on any part of the body: some of them differ in their
colour from the rest of the skin; whilst others are red,
black, &c. Their shapes are various; some resembling
strawberries, others grapes, &c. Heiſter advises their
removal by means of a ligature, a cautery, or a knife;
as circumſtances beſt ſuit.
As to the tumour called a wen, its different ſpecies
are diſtinguiſhed by their contents. They are encyſted
tumours; the matter contained in the firſt three fol-
lowing is inſpiſſated lymph, and that in the fourth is
only fat. Monſ. Littré is the firſt who hath particu-
larly deſcribed the fourth kind; and to the following
purpoſe he ſpeaks of them all. A wen is ſaid to be of
three ſorts, according to the kind of matter it contains:
thoſe whose contents reſemble boiled rice, or curds, or
a bread-poultice, is called atheroma; if it reſembles
honey, it is named meliceris; and if it is like ſuet, it is
denominated ſteatoma: but there is a fourth ſort, which
may be called lipoma, becauſe of its fat contents reſem-
bling greaſe. He ſays that he hath ſeen one on the
ſhoulders of a man, which was a thin bag, of a tender
texture, full of a ſoft fat, and that it had all the qualities
of common greaſe. And though the fat in the lipoma
reſembles that in the ſteatoma, yet they cannot be the
ſame: for the matter of the ſteatoma is not inflammable,
nor does it melt; or if it does, it is with great diffi-
culty and imperfection; whereas it is the contrary with
the lipoma. When the man who had the above-named
lipoma was fatigued, or had drunk freely of ſtrong li-
quors, his lipoma was inflamed for ſome days after,
and its contents rarefying increased the ſize of the tu-
mour.
The lipoma ſeems to be no other than an enlarge-
ment of one or more of the cells of the adipofe mem-
brane, which is filled only with its natural contents.
Its ſoftneſs and largeneſs diſtinguiſh it in general from
the other ſpecies, though ſometimes the fatty contents
will be ſo hard as to deceive. As this kind of wen
does not run between the muſcles, nor is poſſeſſed of
any conſiderable blood-veſſels, it may always be cut off
with eaſe and ſafety.
As to the other kind of wens, their extirpation may
or may not be attempted, according as their ſituation
is with reſpect to adjacent veſſels, the wounding of
which would endanger the patient's life.