ON INFLAMMATION 



139 



tion of the truly nervine manner of progress of the 

 inflammatory phenomena. Thus in suppuration we find 

 that the effused blood elements, along with the traumatised 

 structural elements, of the invaded and inflamed textures 

 are broken down, and developed by the process of suppura- 

 tion into pus, in which form they are eliminated, through 

 extension of the disintegrative and destructive, or necrotic, 

 activity of the pus cells, through every overlying obstacle 

 or texture, leaving the surviving or living tissues by cell 

 proliferation and connective fibre process development, 

 mainly of their connective tissue elements, to take up and 

 complete the work of cicatrisation and repair. Should 

 suppuration end in ulceration, which is in reality a con- 

 tinuation of that process, or should the inflammatory 

 process primarily end in ulceration, then we have demon- 

 strated the extension by histological continuity of the 

 piecemeal necrosis of the invaded and devitalised tissues 

 surrounding the diseased or traumatised area by the con- 

 tinued extension of the suppurative process, and conse- 

 quent textural disintegration and molecular decay, along 

 connective fibre processes and their parent cells. 



If the vital condition of the affected and neighbouring 

 parts be low from any general or local cause, the untoward 

 occurrence of gangrene, or somatic death of the affected 

 tissues, may be witnessed on a smaller or larger scale, in 

 proportion to the intensity and extent of the incidence of 

 the exciting cause of the inflammation ; in this occurrence 

 absolute necrosis ensues, with or without the gradual 

 extension of the processes of suppuration or ulceration, 

 and under favourable circumstances for recovery the 

 slough, or gangrenous tissue, is shed by the still 

 vital and healthy neighbouring tissues, and the result- 

 ing structural hiatus made good by the substitution of 

 fresh or cicatricial tissue, the result of new growth from 

 the proliferation and expansion of the sympathetic nerva- 

 ture, cellular and fibrous, and the overgrowth inwards of 

 a new cuticular texture or epidermis, which becomes a 

 good substitute for a true skin, though void of its 

 distinctive organic textures and appendages. 



Thus we perceive that the reputedly morbid phenomena 

 of inflammation may be recognised as distinctly restorative 



