OF FARRIERY. 



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them undergo inllammation more favoiiralily, 

 ami resiii disease Letter tlmti other parts more 

 remote from the heart. The extremities are 

 more prone to iiiJlammalion and disease iti 

 ueneral, than parts nearer the heart, and 

 when inflamed or cracked, tliey are longer m 

 getting well ; and the circumstance of their 

 heing depending parts, which retards the 

 return of blood through the veins, must also 

 increase the backwardness of such parts, in 

 any salutary process. 



Inflammation, when situated in highly or- 

 ganized and very vascular parts, is more 

 disposed to take a prosperous course, and is 

 more governable by art, than in parts of an 

 opposite texture. The nearer also such vas- 

 cular parts are to the heart, the greater will 

 be the tendency to do well in inflammation. 

 Hence, inflammation of the s«kin, cellular sub- 

 stance, muscles, &c., more frequently ends 

 favourably than the same affection of bones, 

 tendons, ligaments, &c. It is also more ma- 

 nagable by surgery ; for those parts of the 

 body which are not what anatomists term 

 vascular, seem to enjoy only inferior powers of 

 life ; and this explains the difficulty of re- 

 moving any inflammatory action that may 

 arise in the tendons of the leg, which from 

 *heir whiteness are not very vascular. 



B I' inflammation of vital parts, though 

 these may be exceedingly vascular, cannot go 

 on so favourably as in other parts of resem- 

 bling structure, but of different functions; 

 because the mutual operations of universal 

 health depend so much upon the sound con- 

 dition of such organs. The truth of this 

 observation is illustrated in cases of inflamma- 

 mation of the stomach, or lungs, &c. 



In strong constitutions, inflammation always 

 proceeds more propitiously than in weak ones ; 



for where there is much strength, there is 

 irrilaliility. In weak constitutioned Horses, 

 liic operations of inflammation are backward, 

 notwithstanding the part in which it is seated 

 may, comparatively speaking, possess con- 

 siderable organization and powers of life. 



Inflammation, wherever situated, is always 

 most violent on that side of the point of in- 

 flammation which is next to the external 

 surface of the body; and this is particularly 

 exemplified in gun-shot wounds. Suppose a 

 ball were to pass into the thigh, to within an 

 inch of the opposite side of the limb, we 

 should not find that inflammation would be 

 excited alone: the track of the ball, but on tiie 

 side next the skin which had not been hurt 

 If a ball should pass quite through a limb, 

 and carry into the wound a piece of the saddit 

 clothing, which lodges in the middle, equi- 

 distant from the two orifices (which is nol 

 unfrequently the case in cavalry regiments.) 

 the skin immediately over the extraneous 

 body, would inflame, if the passage of the ball 

 were superficial. 



We see three very remarkable effects follovifr 

 the prevalence of inflammation, viz. ; adhe- 

 sions of parts of the body to each other, the 

 formation of pus, or suppuration, and ulcera- 

 tion ; a process in which the lymphatics are 

 more concerned than the blood-vessels. Hence, 

 the terms ad/iesive, suppurative, and ulcera- 

 tive inflammation. 



All parts of the body, however, are net 

 equally liable to each of the preceding conse- 

 quences. In the cellular membrane, and in 

 the circumscribed cavities (especially the 

 cavity of the chest,) the adhesive stage takes 

 place more readily than the others ; suppura- 

 tion may be said to follow next in order of 

 firequency ; and lastly, ulceration. Now, the 



