GENERAL REVIEW OF THE NUTRITIVE PROCESSES. 675 



the Mucous membranes, which all manifest a tendency to Inflammation, when 

 Arsenic has been received into the system : and certain forms of the disease 

 commonly termed Influenza, are marked by a similar disposition. The same 

 may be said in regard to Inflammation of the Fibrous membranes, Areolar 

 tissue, Serous membranes, and other structures. It has been considered a 

 sufficient account of these consentaneous affections, to say that they result 

 from Sympathy, a mere verbal quibble, which explains nothing. If, on the 

 other hand, we regard the disease as a perversion of the ordinary processes 

 of Nutrition, Secretion, &c., and as dependent upon an abnormal condition of 

 the Blood (such as is induced by the introduction of a poison into it), the 

 rationale of the sympathetic disturbance becomes apparent; since all the 

 tissues of the same kind will of necessity be similarly affected, although some 

 local cause may occasion one to suffer more severely than another. In the 

 ingenious paper by Dr. W. Budd, already referred to ( 785), the perfect cor- 

 respondence, which not unfrequently manifests itself between the diseased 

 actions on the two sides of the body, is adduced in support of the same view, 

 to which it is made to afford very striking confirmation. The fact that this 

 kind of Sympathy not unfrequently manifests itself between tissues having 

 an analogous structure, but very different function, is another argument in 

 favour of the same view ; of this fact, the sympathy of which every practical 

 man is aware, between the Skin and Mucous Membranes, is a very good 

 example. The sympathy of the different tissues forming any individual organ, 

 by which disease in one becomes a cause of disorder in the rest, is, however, 

 to be very differently explained. We have examples of this in Inflammatory 

 affections of the Mucous membranes, which usually extend themselves to the 

 remaining constituents of the organs of which they form a part; and in those 

 of the Serous membranes, which almost always follow inflammation of the 

 organs they invest. Here the local disturbance of one part appears sufficient 

 to account for the extension of it to another, that is closely connected with it 

 by vessels and nerves; this has been termed the Sympathy of Contiguity. 

 The Fibrous membranes are less liable to be affected in this manner, than are 

 most other tissues; and the reason appears simply this, that there is usually 

 less vascular connection between them and the adjacent parts, than there is 

 in the case of the Serous membranes. Hence the Fibrous membranes fre- 

 quently act as insulators, preventing the spread of disease to adjacent parts. 

 883. The general characters of the processes of Nutrition and Secretion 

 are so nearly allied, that what has been stated of the Pathological states of the 

 former, is nearly as applicable to those of the latter. Although it is unques- 

 tionable that disordered Secretion may result from a purely local cause, acting 

 on the solid tissue of the part affected, yet there is also increasing reason to 

 believe, that in a large number of cases, the abnormal character of the pro- 

 duct is in reality a result of the abnormal state of the Blood from which it 

 is separated; and that the organ itself is still performing a healthy function, 

 in separating from the blood that which would be injurious to it. This 

 leads us to refer such disorders to causes much more remote than those 

 which were formerly supposed to operate ; but they are undoubtedly nearer 

 the true ones. Such a view has been prosecuted by Dr. Prout in regard to 

 the abnormal conditions of the Urine, with great success; and there can be 

 little doubt that it is also applicable to the Biliary secretion, on the true 

 chemical nature of which there is scarcely yet an agreement among Chemists, 

 and whose pathological conditions, therefore, are, and must long remain, 

 comparatively obscure. It is obvious that, if the Assimilation of Nutritive 

 matter be in any respect wrongly performed, the products of the Decomposi- 

 tion of the Tissues (in which these excretions probably originate, 819), must 

 also be different; and our remedial measures must often be directed, therefore, 

 not so much to the Secreting organ, as towards the previous operations. 



