REPARATORY INFLAMMATION IN ARTERIES. 17 



cerning the organization of tlie blood, there has at no time 

 been a unanimity of opinion among the investigators -whose 

 labors have furnished the most important observations bearing 

 upon the process of healing after wounds of bloodvessels, and 

 that no less than four of the latest publications which have 

 been furnished by the pens of most distinguished pathologists 

 directly contradict the assumption of Billroth and Rindfleisch 

 concerning the activity of the wandering cells in the organiza- 

 tion of thrombi. 



In commencing the relation of our own personal observa- 

 tions, perhaps it ma^^ be proper to state at the outset that the 

 conclusions which we believe to be legitimate deductions from 

 the facts which shall be reported are, in many important 

 points, at variance with some opinions generally admitted by 

 the scientific world to be well established. If these deductions 

 shall stand irrefuted it will become necessary to modify greatly 

 the present pre^'alent opinions concerning the nature of in- 

 flammation. It is not our intention, however, upon this occa- 

 sion, to discuss the nature of inflammation in general. The 

 question of inflammation will be raised only by indirection, 

 and will be limited to the inflammatory processes as the}' are 

 seen in wounded arteries. 



It is by the light of pathological histology alone that we 

 propose to examine to-night " The Nature of Reparatoiy In- 

 flammation in Arteries after Ligature, Acupressure, and Tor- 

 sion." 



Just here let it be premised that if our conclusions are not 

 in accord with views considered as established, it cannot be 

 charged by the defenders of the latter that our investigation 

 has been undertaken or conducted with an unfavorable bias. 

 Until the completion of our experimental study of ligation, 

 no authorities upon the pathological histology of the subject 

 had boon examined by us other than Rindfleisch and I>iIlrotli. 

 Their opinions upon this subject Lad, up to the time of the 

 2 



