INFLAMMATIONS, FERMENTATIONS, ETC. 39 



invariably precedes the manifestation of vital actions, it is 

 difficult to understand how these can depend upon oxida- 

 tion. Now, the developmental period is not remarkable 

 for the activity of oxidation, although it is very remarkable 

 for the activity of vital action. The doctrine that " chemi- 

 cal actions " constitute the " mainspring " " of those forces 

 which are summed up in the word ' life,' " is a doctrine which 

 is not supported by evidence. 



To say that " the resemblance of inflammation to ordi- 

 nary combustion has long been recognised," is to assert a 

 proposition with which, I venture to think, very few phy- 

 siologists and pathologists in the present day would agree. 

 Had I been asked, I should certainly have answered that 

 the notion of the resemblance between inflammation and 

 ordinary combustion had long been abandoned. I would 

 ask, in what points inflammation resembles ordinary com- 

 bustion ? It seems to me that there are few processes more 

 unlike, except in name, than inflammation and combustion, 

 and if any one form of inflammation be selected for discus- 

 sion, I am quite ready to support this view. 



"We are beginning now to see that fevers bear the 

 same relation to inflammations that fermentations do to 

 combustions." Fermentation takes place through the 

 agency of living beings alone, or, in other words, living 

 things are necessary to what we call "fermentation;" but 

 what is the relation of living things to "combustions?" 

 Fever and inflammation, and fermentation are peculiar to 

 living organisms, and cannot occur except in connection 

 with living organisms. Combustion, however, is opposed 

 to, and destroys that which lives. It remains, therefore, to 

 be shown what is the relation referred to. Those who sup- 



