176 ON THE NATURE AXD PRINCIPLES OF 



contend, therefore, that this distinction between 

 congestion and inflammation can no longer be main- 

 tained ; for that whenever an adequate amount of 

 compressing or expelling force acts upon tli2 blood 

 contained in the minute vessels of any part, the 

 exudation of the fibrinous portion of the liquor sau- 

 guinis will then invariably take place. It is a 

 purely mechanical process, and, as such, regulated 

 by physical laws. "VVe must, then, in order to 

 explain its occurrence in some cases of obstructed 

 capillary circulation, and its absence in others, trace 

 the operation of the various physical and vital laws 

 affecting the pressure of the blood contained within 

 the minute vessels of the part, and not remain 

 content with ascribing the variety in the effects wit- 

 nessed to unknown and undcmonstrable differences 

 in the nature of the two disorders. 



I might have added Dr. Billing's name to those 

 of the other pathologists who suppose congestion to 

 be distinguished from inflammation by the presence 

 of fibrinous effusion in the latter, and its absence in 

 the former case. But he is evidently disposed to 

 attach less importance than the generality of writers 

 on inflammation, to the maintenance of a distinction 

 between the two disorders. For he speaks of them 

 as " but varieties of distended vessels," and admits 

 " the impossibility of drawing a line between in- 

 flammation and congestion, the one passing into the 

 other by insensible shade-." 



And Dr. C. J. B. Williams, in his last work 

 (" Principles of Medicine"), when speaking of UK- 

 effects of congestion as existing in the kidney and 



