218 ON THE NATURE AND PRINCIPLES OP 



tested and verified by a careful and comprehensive 

 review of the great functions of the body, than to 

 rely implicitly upon one or more prominent local 

 symptoms. 



Isow, local pain, a very general and by far the 

 most striking symptom of internal inflammation, is, if 

 taken per se, perhaps the most fallacious of all the 

 manifestations of disordered action, for it may not 

 only exist with the most opposite states of the system, 

 and even with very different local disorders of the 

 circulation, but being regulated in its severity chiefly 

 by the degree of sensibility possessed by the par- 

 ticular constitution or part affected, it ceases to 

 furnish any definite information as to the activity or 

 danger, or even the nature of the existing malady. 

 The diseases, therefore, most liable to be mistaken 

 for acute inflammation, are those in which the sen- 

 sibility of a part or organ is, from some other cause, 

 unnaturally augmented; such are neuralgic, hyste- 

 rical, and rheumatic pains, and also certain forms 

 of cerebral excitement. The special rules for dis- 

 criminating between it and these several affections 

 are, of course, inadmissible in a sketch of the ge- 

 neral pathology of inflammation ; but in addition to 

 the other precautions already noticed I may mention 

 the propriety of instituting, where practicable, a 

 physical examination of the part affected, and of 

 ascertaining, by the application of chemical agents, 

 the nature of any change which may have taken 

 place in the fluid discharged by glandular or effusing 

 -urlaees. The age, sex, diathesis, habits, &c. of the 

 indiyidua] will also materially assist the 



