Tubercular tumors of the larynx resemble more papilloma or fibroma than carcinoma, as they are generally strictly circumscribed, smooth, with intact mucosa, broad-based or pedunculated and arise from the surface of the larynx in the manner of the benign growths. They may be covered with papillomata. In some cases, however, where the tumor is broad-based and diffuse, it may simulate carcinoma, as in the case reported by Gussenbauer, who extirpated a larynx supposing a tubercular tumor to be a malignant one. Hajek reports five cases of tubercular tumor of the larynx, all of which occurred after the fiftieth year, so that age is of little use in the diagnosis from carcinoma. Pulmonary tuberculosis is usually but not always present, so that the microscope may be needed for the diagnosis. The very rare association of carcinoma and tuberculosis in the larynx needs only to be mentioned.
The laryngeal affections of secondary