126 ON THE NATURE AND PRINCIPLES OE 



These experiments may be conveniently considered 

 under two heads. In the first division we have 

 those performed by Hunter himself upon some of 

 the higher animals; in the second group may be 

 comprised all those numerous microscopical observa- 

 tions upon the transparent tissues of various reptiles 

 and of certain of the higher animals, in which the 

 successive phenomena presented by a part artificially 

 inflamed, have been carefully watched, and minutely 

 described, by Wilson Philip, Hastings, Gendrin, 

 and a host of observers. 



Now it can, I think, be shown that all these expe- 

 riments and observations, though most valuable from 

 the light which they have cast upon the mode of 

 production of certain of the symptoms, and the order 

 of development of the effects of inflammation, do 

 not, if fairly considered, conduct the unprejudiced 

 mind to any direct and positive conclusion as to the 

 essential nature of the disease. Before endeavouring 

 to establish this point by a brief review of Hunter's 

 experiments, let me utterly disclaim all idea of 

 attempting to detract from his well-earned fame. 

 On the contrary, as the first successful cultivator of 

 experimental pathology, he has ever been a peculiar 

 object of my veneration : and it will, if I mistake not, 

 be in after ages considered not the least brilliant 

 achievement of human genius that it furnished this 

 great man with sagacity to perceive the inadequacy 

 of mere observation as an instrument for pathological 

 discovery, and with ingenuity and boldness to com- 

 bine with it the more subtle and far-reaching agency 

 of t.rjH'riment. In acting thus, it is true that he did 



