180 ON THE NATUUK AND PRINT! IM.I-> OF 



same disease, differing from each other in the inten- 

 "////, and not in the nature of the pathological con- 

 dition essentially constituting them, we must now 

 a-sign some precise signification to the latter term, 

 as it will probably still be used in medical writings. 

 But before doing so, it is necessary to refer to an 

 arrangement of cases of congestion sometimes ob- 

 served by authors; I mean, their division into active 

 and passive. Now the local disorder of the circu- 

 lation, to which the term active congestion is applied, 

 seems to me to be identical with that generally known 

 as determination of blood, the pathology of which 

 will be considered in the following part of this in- 

 quiry ; while the term passive congestion I consider 

 to express the existence of a state of capillary lii/jicr- 

 (Btnia, without much increase in the lateral pressure of 

 that accumulated blond. And when the term chronic 

 is used to denote the intcnxiti/, and not the durtitimi 

 of Inflammation, the pathological condition then 

 present is very similar to that just described. I may 

 here observe, that it is an error to suppose that the 

 capillary congestion resulting from venous obstruc- 

 tion cannot produce the same morbid effects as thai 

 occasioned by any other cause; for the experiments 

 so often referred to suflice to prove that the exuda- 

 tion of lymph is as clearly an effect of venous ob- 

 struction as the effusion ofserum, or the extravasation 

 of blood. Dr. Bennett, of Edinburgh, a recent and an 

 able writer on inflammation, but who, like the great 

 majority of pathologists and physiologists of the pre- 

 sent day, trn.-ls, perhaps, too exclusively to nnttidul 



