TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION, 241 



of action of the exciting causes of inflammation ; and, 

 as regards the peculiar circumstances which deter- 

 mine the production of its secondary effects, we may 

 be said to know nothing with certainty. But as 

 these questions, though constituting interesting and 

 important ramifications from the general subject, 

 need not necessarily be mixed up with an inquiry 

 into the essential nature of inflammation, I have, on 

 the present occasion, refrained as much as possible 

 from entering upon their consideration. 



The pathological views now advanced are, to a 

 considerable extent, based upon those views of the 

 physiology of the circulation which formed the sub- 

 ject of a former paper. There has, indeed, long 

 existed an impression among those who have studied 

 the actions of the living body, that the minute 

 arteries effuse, and the venous radicles absorb : but, 

 with the exception of that previously alluded to, no 

 attempt has been made to discover the mechanism of 

 either process, nor has the fact itself been established 

 either by actual observation or physical reasoning. 

 The former proof, though perhaps some day attain- 

 able, is not yet capable of being exhibited. But a 

 judicious application of the principles of hydraulics 

 to the explanation of the functions of the minute 

 blood-vessels, does, I think, justify us in concluding 

 that, during the existence of the circulation, a slow 

 but constant extravascular current is, as a general 

 rule, everywhere flowing from the arterial to the 

 venous portion of the capillaries, and thus effects the 

 nutrition and purification of the different tissues of 

 the body. 



R 



