Familial polyposis coli.

Although it is now 250 years since intestinal polyposis was first reported, probably not until 1847 was the first account given, by Corvisart, of what is now known as “familial polyposis coli.” Twelve years later, Chargelaigue described the disease in two patients, a 16-year-old girl and a man aged 21 years. Since then the main characteristics have been established by numerous other case reports. Harrison Cripps (1882) gave the first indication that polyposis coli might be familial when he diagnosed multiple rectal polyps in a brother and sister. Many similar observations since then have firmly established the inherited nature of the disease. A littler later, Handford (1890) appears to have been the first to notice the high incidence of associated carcinoma of the colon and rectum. This observation, also fully substantiated by many subsequent reports, has important consequences in the study of the etiology of intestinal cancer and gives polyposis coli an interest and value much greater than its rarity would seem to justify.