TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 165 



There is, however, one microscopical phenomenon 

 which cannot be passed over without a more de- 

 tailed examination ; I mean the appearance of an 

 unnatural number of white globules in the blood 

 contained within the affected vessels, together with 

 a marked tendency in those globules to adhere to 

 each other, and to the sides of the containing 

 capillaries. This circumstance is, by many eminent 

 writers, considered to indicate the possession by the 

 blood present in an inflamed part of properties 

 different from, or superadded to, its ordinary vital 

 endowments, and which properties are presumed to 

 be, in some inexplicable manner, connected with the 

 production of the accompanying disease. 



Now I am far from attempting to offer anything 

 like an explanation of the nature and origin of these 

 or any of the other minute particles which are 

 described by microscopical pathologists under nume- 

 rous names, as constituting the characteristic pecu- 

 liarities of the various products of disease. In the 

 present imperfect and confused state of our know- 

 ledge it is clearly impossible even to hazard an 

 opinion as to the causes determining the production 

 of each variety in the form, size, colour, and struc- 

 ture of the different microscopical bodies in question. 

 For the discovery of any general laws explanatory 

 of the appearance in one case of inflammation of 

 certain peculiarly-formed globules or corpuscles, 

 and their total absence in other cases under pre- 

 cisely similar perceptible conditions, we must have 

 recourse to other sources of information in addition 

 to microscopical observations. Analytical chemistry 



M 3 



