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suppuration ; by the development of these latent causes, by those 

 varieties of combinations which make progressive change, all the 

 circumstances of this local disease are decided; by these it is de- 

 termined whether an imposthume forms, which ulcerates speedHy, 

 and discharges its contents; by these it is decided whether the 

 bursting of this abscess shall be followed by re-generative pro- 

 cesses, by which health is re-established, or whether ulceration is 

 extended, or whether a slow inflammation remains, which pro- 

 duces further thickening of the structure; by these it is deter- 

 mined, whether such thickened structure, or the adventitious mat- 

 ter composing it, shall be absorbed, or whether the suppurative 

 processes shall be renewed ; by these the quality of the pus is de- 

 termined; by these scrophulous matter may be produced, or phos- 

 phate of lime may be deposited. The predisposition is perhaps 

 not originally confined to this structure; the properties which 

 animate the heart may also have attained a predisposed state; 

 this state may be attained by complex relations; it may be attained 

 by progressive changes of the assimilating life of the heart ; or the 

 original seat of change may be in the sources of the regular de- 

 pendent properties; or the heart may be affected by those of the 

 occasional kind, as if the disease of the lungs communicated pro- 

 perties to the heart which raised its actions to 130 in a minute: 

 this, however, would not take place except the state of the spirit 

 which governs the movements of the heart was a peculiar or pre- 

 disposed one. By these latent properties, also, is determined the 

 fate of the arteries, in the seat of the local disease: their cohesion 

 is firm, and they retain their blood; their state is otherwise pre- 

 disposed to rupture, and this prevails either in the minute branches 

 or in the trunks, and we find among our symptoms small expecto- 

 rations of blood or great hemorrhages. By these the changes of 

 the chymical and of the mechanical circumstances of the struc- 

 tures are regulated ; by these the changes succeed which result 

 from those modifications of the structures; to these are to be 

 assigned the phenomena which are produced by the new relation 

 opened between a modified state of the spirit and a modified state 

 of its chymical and mechanical alliances. By these the sphere of 

 disease is settled, whether confined to one seat or extended to 

 others, and to what others it is extended; by these, latent changes 

 proceed in a series; by these, phenomena, which we call symp- 

 toms, are every now and then exhibited, as the sensible tokens of 

 these latent changes; by these it is decided whether life remains 

 permanently a modified principle, compatible with health,* 

 whether the identity of health is restored, or whether the series of 

 progressive change terminate in producing a state of the spirit in 

 which it can assimilate no longer, or in the condition of death. 



* The small-pox, and those diseases which can occur but once, are in- 

 stances of the production of a permanently modified assimilating principle, 

 without interruption of the functions and phenomena which characterize health. 



