TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 213 



cannot be over estimated; for where they do not 

 rapidly destroy life, they seldom fail to leave behind 

 the material for structural change, and thus insi- 

 diously pave the way for numerous distressing and 

 fatal maladies. In their earlier stages they are 

 generally remediable ; but the removal of the effects 

 which result from their protracted continuance, or 

 frequent recurrence, must ever be most difficult. 

 Like many other diseases, their causes may be more 

 easily removed than their effects. 



PART VIII. 







OF THE TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 



AMONG other advantages to be derived from the 

 extension of our pathological knowledge is the 

 substitution of an intelligible and scientific for a 

 vague and empirical treatment of disease. Our 

 ignorance of the nature and immediate causes of 

 many morbid conditions will probably long compel 

 us to employ remedial agents whose mode of opera- 

 tion is in a great measure equally obscure. But 

 the superiority of a system of therapeutics in which 

 it shall be possible to trace the chain of connection 

 between the administration of the remedy and the 

 removal of the disorder, must be sufficiently obvious. 



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