TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 207 



pressure of the mass of blood pent up in the large 

 arteries, and thus preserve the capillaries from an 

 irruption of highly compressed fluid, which, if not at 

 once structurally injurious, would be wholly sub- 

 versive of their natural functions. But \vhen this 

 protection is, in a certain set of vessels, removed by 

 the yielding of the smaller arteries, and the admission 

 into them of an increased quantity of blood, the 

 capillaries become directly exposed to the full force 

 of the dilating columns. And if that lateral or 

 dilating pressure be very great, or long continued, 

 the opposing contractility of the capillaries becomes 

 exhausted, and the accumulated and compressed 

 blood, forcing an entrance into the debilitated ves- 

 sels, rapidly occasions the pathological phenomena 

 characteristic of inflammation. This view at once 

 harmonises with, and explains, the fact of inflam- 

 mation never supervening upon determination but 

 when the latter disorder has been intense, frequent, 

 or long continued. Since, then, the existence of 

 an adequate distending force in the arterial blood- 

 columns cannot be denied, and since the continued 

 application of this hydraulic pressure must evidently 

 have the effect of gradually and successively dilating 

 the porous capillaries, and admitting into them a 

 quantity of compressed blood, conditions which, 

 while incompatible with the discharge of the healthy 

 functions of those vessels, are demonstrably produc- 

 tive of the pathological condition constituting in- 

 flammation, it must be admitted that the occa- 

 sional appearance of this latter more serious disorder, 

 as the effect of determination of blood, is clearly 



