TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 211 



plethora, in addition to other remedial measures, it 

 will be found necessary to use depletion by means 

 of blood-letting, purgation, &c., and to enforce low 

 diet, in order to reduce and maintain at that di- 

 minished amount the general pressure of the arterial 

 blood. But, on the other hand, where there is 

 merely a local increase in the pressure of the arterial 

 blood, and that referrible rather to the relaxation 

 than to the forcible dilatation of the affected vessels, 

 the equalisation of the circulation, by directing an 

 additional quantity of blood to other and distant 

 parts of the body, and thus diminishing the pressure 

 upon the distended arteries, will sufficiently fulfil 

 this indication. We accomplish this end by the use 

 of derivatives, of which the best and most effectual, 

 where it can with propriety be applied, is gentle 

 and continued bodily exercise. In affections of par- 

 ticular organs, the derivation is variously directed. 

 Thus, in determination of blood to the head, by a 

 half instinctive feeling the supply to the lower 

 extremities is artificially increased. When any 

 internal organ becomes the seat of this disorder, by 

 warmth or other stimulants the cutaneous vessels 

 are stimulated so as to cause their enlargement. 

 The general principle is, to determine either to the 

 most distant parts, or to those which, from exer- 

 cising a function similar to that of the affected organ, 

 may, by their increased activity, diminish or remove 

 the physiological necessity for its augmented supply 

 of blood. The practice proposed by the late Dr. 

 Parry of Bath, which consists in the compression of 

 the arterial trunk leading to the seat of the deter- 



p 2 



