258 ON THE EARLY STAGES OF INFLAMMATION 
established or conjectured. It applies equally in the case of other irritants. 
Thus having transmitted for about a quarter of a minute, through one of the 
webs of a dark amputated limb, powerful galvanic currents, such as I had before 
ascertained to cause stagnation of the blood when operating for an instant 
upon the living animal, I found, after the lapse of an hour and a quarter, that the 
process of concentration had advanced considerably in the next web, but in 
that on which the galvanism had acted had only just commenced, even in the 
parts most remote from the point to which the poles of the battery were applied ; 
while in the vicinity of that spot the state of full diffusion still continued. After 
the lapse of three more hours, however, the pigment was almost fully concen- 
trated in the part of the web where it was before only slightly so; and even 
where it had been most directly subjected to the galvanic influence, it had 
undergone a certain, though very slight degree of the same change, the chro- 
matophorous cells having even there partially recovered their functions. 
This inherent power in the tissues of recovering from the effects of irrita- 
tion, explains the occurrence of resolution in an amputated limb, such as I once 
observed in a case where a moderate amount of congestion had been induced 
under the action of oil of turpentine before the animal was killed, and the blood 
resumed to a great extent its normal characters in the vessels several hours after 
the limb had been severed from the body. 
The return of the blood along with the tissues to the state of health is a very 
interesting circumstance. Whether it depends upon an intrinsic power of 
recovery on the part of the vital fluid, or on the living solids resuming an active 
operation upon it, is at present uncertain ; but in the meantime, the phenomena 
of resolution already assume a far more intelligible aspect than heretofore, on 
the hypothesis that the tissues generally are endowed with the same faculty of 
self-restoration as the pigment-cells. 
It may be well to give here a list of all the agents whose effects upon the 
pigmentary functions I have investigated. They are as follows: Mechanical 
violence, the galvanic shock, desiccation of the tissues,! dry heat, warm water at 
100° Fahr., intense cold, caustic ammonia, a strong solution of common salt, 
carbonic acid, acetic acid, tincture of iodine, chloroform, oil of turpentine, 
mustard, tincture of cantharides, and croton oil. 
These are all of them irritants, i.e. give rise to inflammatory congestion 
through their direct action upon a vascular part, as I have witnessed in the 
{rog’s web in every case except that of cold, the influence of which in causing 
' The effects of deficiency of moisture in the web were observed in amputated limbs, in which I have 
seen both suspension of pigmentary functions from this cause and recovery from that state after the 
application of water. While the circulation is going on in the living animal I have not found desiccation 
of the web to occur, unless the tissues had been weakened more or less by irritation. 
