ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 1^9 



must be based upon sound medical principles. A correct 

 understanding of the term inflammation will assist us 

 very materially in understanding the pathology of dis- 

 eases in their most complicated forms. A few years since, 

 every form of disease occurring in our domestic animals 

 was regarded and treated as some form of inflammation ; 

 purging and bleeding were the order of the day. How 

 different the practice of the present time. 



The manner in which inflammation has been written 

 upon, has made it a subject perfectly bewilde*-ing to the 

 general reader, and from its being associated with every 

 thing in actual practice, no idea of a very definite kind 

 with regard to it will for a long time occur to his mind. 

 With a view to overcome this difficulty, we will give the 

 most simple definition of the term inflammation. "It is an 

 uanatural or perverted action of and in the capillary 

 blood vessels of a part ; attended with redness, throbbing, 

 swelling, pain, heat and disorder of function, with change 

 in both its iluid and solid constituents, as well as with 

 more or less general disturbance of the system." The ex- 

 tent to which structures in a state of inflammation will 

 swell, varies considerably, depending upon the vital and 

 piiysical characters of the tissue involved. Muscular 

 tissue becomes very much swollen, while, on the other 

 hand, horny and cartilaginous tissues swell but little, in 

 consequence of their low state of vitality. It must be re- 

 membered that it requires an assemblage of the above 

 conditions to constitute inflammation. Swelling, pain, 

 heat or redness alone do not constitute that condition, as 

 either may occur from causes independent of any inflam- 

 matory action whatever. 



We now feel prepared to proceed with our remarks 



