loo INFECTIOUS AND PARASITIC DISEASES, 



and also in some inflicted by many chemical and 

 animate ones, antibodies are not created, because the 

 toxins which stimulate their production are wanting. 

 In such instances the reactions excited at the site of the 

 injury suffice to counteract the action of the damaging 

 agent and repair the tissues affected. But when infec- 

 tious agents, and also certain poisons e. g., snake venom, 

 produce injuries, then both antibodies and local defen- 

 sive phenomena are brought into action. Hence the 

 defensive mechanism, it will be observed, has a dual 

 action; one, to produce antibodies; the other, to repair 

 tissues injured and destroyed. The process of repair 

 is characterized by entirely different phenomena than 

 those of antibody formation, albeit both often arise 

 from the same source, viz., injury to cells. This differ- 

 ence is illustrated by the fact that while, on the one 

 hand, the formation of antibodies is conducted by 

 cells situated at a distance from the lesion, repair, on 

 the other, is a process which involves the lesion itself 

 and neighboring cells. For the process of repair the 

 name inflammation is used, and under it are included 

 all immediate and subsequent changes in a tissue or 

 organ that has sustained an injury. 



If it were our purpose to treat inflammations ex- 

 haustively, we should have to take into consideration 

 the various agents which produce bodily injuries, and 

 every tissue and organ susceptible of injury; also such 

 local and general conditions of the body as influence 



