674 GENERAL REVIEW OF THE NUTRITIVE PROCESSES. 



the circulation through the Liver, originating in an unhealthy state of the gland 

 itself, is a cause of serious disorders in the abdominal viscera. Minor irregu- 

 larities in the Circulation, in various parts, not unfrequently become causes of 

 serious inconvenience. Thus, few conditions are more common, especially 

 amongst persons of active minds but inert habits, than undue determination of 

 blood to the Head, conjoined with torpor of the circulation through the Skin, 

 especially that of the extremities, which are ordinarily cold. The obvious 

 indication here is, to endeavour to restore the balance of the Circulation ; and 

 excitement of the flow of blood through the Skin, by frictions, moderately- 

 stimulating applications, exercise, &c., will commonly prove of great utility. 



881. There are many disorders commonly regarded as affections of the 

 Circulation, which evidently consist in reality of a morbid alteration in the 

 Nutritive processes : among these there can be little doubt that we are to rank 

 local Determinations and Congestions, which result from an exalted or dimi- 

 nished activity of the formative actions ; and Inflammation, in which these 

 actions are perverted. Much has been said and written, to very little purpose, 

 respecting the essential nature of this process ; it has been attributed by some 

 to disordered action of the vessels, and by others to an injurious impression 

 on the nerves, the fact, that Inflammation may occur in tissues which con- 

 tain neither vessels nor nerves, having been entirely overlooked. The only 

 view of the character of Inflammation that seems likely to account for its 

 phenomena, is that which regards it as essentially consisting in a disturbance 

 of the due relation between the living Tissue and the nutrient materials 

 contained in the Blood ; in other words, as an abnormal form of the ordinary 

 nutritive process ( 802 806). A similar remark may be made, in regard 

 to those productions formerly termed "Heterologous transformations" of 

 tissue ; which are rather to be regarded as new growths, that have appro- 

 priated the nutriment designed for the support of the proper tissues, and have 

 therefore become developed at the expense of these. It is quite as absurd 

 to attempt to account for the growth of Scirrhus, Carcinoma, &c., by any 

 peculiar action of the vessels of the part, as it would be to attribute the secre- 

 tion of fatty matter by the cells of one tissue, or of phosphate of lime by 

 those of another, to the peculiar distribution of their vessels. The progress 

 of research obviously leads to the conclusion, that in every part of the living 

 body there is an inherent and independent vitality, which enables it to grow 

 and maintain its normal structure and constitution, so long as it is supplied 

 with the requisite materials; and that changes in the character of the tissue 

 can be referred to nothing else than to alterations in its properties, resulting 

 from external agencies, or to alterations in the materials supplied for its 

 renewal. Of these two morbific causes, the latter is undoubtedly the most 

 frequent ; and the tendency which is now gaining ground, to seek in the Blood 

 for indications of pathological changes, when there is no obvious general dis- 

 turbance of the system, will probably lead to a greatly-increased knowledge 

 of the real nature of diseased states ; in spite of the opposition which any 

 return to the Humoral Pathology is sure to excite, in the minds of those who 

 reirurd it as an exploded and pernicious system. 



882. The Sympathy between different parts of the system, which espe- 

 cially manifests itself in the tendency to simultaneous affection with the same 

 Disease, affords an excellent illustration of this principle. Of those Sympa- 

 thetic actions, which result from the Nervous connections of the various 

 organs, this is not the place to speak ; since we are at present concerned 

 with those perversions of the Nutritive processes, which give rise to Inflam- 

 matory and other diseases. Where a certain tissue, throughout the body, is 

 similarly affected, there is strong reason to presume that the morbific cause 

 is conveyed to it in the Blood ; this is the case, for example, with regard to 



