TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 237 



flaramation. There is, in short, this essential dif- 

 ference in the causation of these two varieties of 

 inflammatory disease, that in the one form the 

 sthenic or acute the debility or relaxation of the 

 capillaries of the affected part is an effect of the phy- 

 sical disorder, or morbidly increased lateral pressure 

 of the contained blood ; while in chronic inflamma- 

 tion, occurring as a primary disease, the relaxation 

 of the capillaries, by constituting a slight impediment 

 to the blood's passage through them, operates as the 

 cause of the accompanying physical disorder of that 

 fluid. In treating this latter disease, we must, there- 

 fore, rather address ourselves to the removal of the 

 primary obstructing cause, the relaxation of the 

 affected capillaries (which is fortunately, to a great 

 extent, remediable), than seek, by depletory measures, 

 to relieve the accompanying physical disorder of the 

 blood, which is but an effect of that obstruction. 



The means by which we attempt to restore to 

 their natural condition the relaxed capillaries, consist 

 either in the direct application of astringents, stimu- 

 lants, or mechanical support, or in the administration 

 of remedies calculated to give tone to the whole, 

 system. 



The employment of local remedies is, of course, 

 necessarily restricted to those cases in which the 

 disease affects structures situated near to the surface 

 of the body. But where they can be used, as in 

 affections of the conjunctiva, of the throat, of the 

 rectal, vaginal, and urethral mucous membranes, and 

 of the cutaneous and subcutaneous structures, their 

 beneficial influence in expediting and frequently 



