TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 239 



vantage will be experienced from a knowledge of 

 the peculiar diathesis of the individual, and of the 

 nature and cause of any derangement in the quality 

 of the blood. If there be merely an impoverished 

 condition of the circulating fluid, a generous diet, 

 assisted by chalybeates and aromatic tonics, will 

 generally suffice for its restoration to a healthy state. 

 And in cases where the relaxation of the capillaries, 

 and the tenuity of the blood, are so extreme as to 

 cause copious fluxes, or extensive serous effusions, 

 these measures may be joined with the internal ad- 

 ministration of astringents, such as the mineral acids 

 or acetate of lead. 



If, on the other hand, from the appearance of the 

 individual, from the structure affected, and from the 

 history of the case, we have reason to suspect a ten- 

 dency to the exudation of scrofulous matter, more 

 benefit may perhaps be experienced from adminis- 

 tering, instead of, or in addition to the other remedies, 

 some preparation of iodine or any other substance 

 that may appear calculated either to prevent the 

 formation, or facilitate the removal, of that diseased 

 albumen. So, likewise, in cases of rheumatic, sy- 

 philitic, and erysipelatous inflammation, must our 

 treatment embrace as its chief object the removal of 

 the peculiar disorder of the constitution, or of the 

 blood, which originates and maintains the local 

 disease. 



In this brief sketch of the treatment of chronic 

 inflammation nothing has been said of the use of 

 counter-irritants or of local blood-letting ; where 

 this latter remedy can with propriety be adopted, 



