On the genesis of air cells in the conchæ nasales

Since the time of Santorini, who apparently was the first anatomist to call attention to the cavities frequently found in the middle nasal conchae, many conflicting and erroneous hypotheses have been advanced as to the nature and origin of these spaces. Many of the theories are from the pens of clinicians who removed at operation portions of the walls of such cavities that were changed by pathological processes, and then attempted to explain the origin of these spaces from the altered tissue removed. It is the purpose of this paper to briefly analyze some of the theories extant and, if possible, arrive at the true origin and nature of thesc cavities-basing the conclusions on a study of the lateral wall of the nasal cavity in the fetus, child, and adult. These cavities have been variously termed cysts, abscesses. osseous cysts, exostoses, neoplasms, ectasias of the ethmoid bone, air cells, aberrated ethmoid cells, and when large and occurring in the ventral portion of the conchae inedize, as conchae bullosa. I have found these cavities, lyhich I consider as normalethmoid cells, in the concha media, processus uncinatus, and agger nasi. dchaeffer reports an isolated case in the concha inferior, and Hayer found one in the concha superior. The usual seat, however, for these cells is in the anterior half of the concha media, and it is to the cells in this position that the above terms have been applied by various writers. It is not common to findcells in the adult superior conchae. The reason for this is evident