This is a non-specific inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the nasal passages. It may be acute, chronic or recurrent, and is attended by a deposit of fibrinous exudation. This exudate presents the anatomic features of a false membrane, being imposed upon the epithelium, without involving to any great extent, the deeper tissues. That this condition should ever exist as an independent affection is still a matter of doubt with some observers.
Abbott, in the "Transactions of the Pathological Society of London" (1893), says that "cultivation from the supposed false membrane of the nose always contained the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus, although in some cases it was thought to be attenuated. Evidence is accumulating to show that these cases of so-called fibrinous rhinitis are merely mild local manifestations of the specific diphtheritic bacillus." Professor Kan thack, in "Allbutt's System of Medicine" (1896), says, "a curious and important pathologic condition is the so-called