58 TERMINATIONS OF INFLAMMATION. 



The other form of mortification we have to deal with is that 

 which goes under the denomination of Inflammatory Mortifica- 

 tion. The death of an inflamed part is a very complex matter, 

 and in certain kinds of it stagnation, degeneration, and pres- 

 sure may act as causes. Thus, inflammatory congestion may 

 end in perfect stagnation of the blood in the vessels, the blood 

 so stagnated may mortify or die, and this death of the blood 

 may lead to the mortification of the tissues that need it for 

 their support. 



Degeneration of the proper tissues of the part is a constant 

 accompaniment of the inflammatory process, and this degenera- 

 tion may result in death, from absence of the proper conditions 

 of nutrition; and, again, eftusion of fluid may so compress the 

 inflamed part, and, by the swelling, so elongate the blood-vessels, 

 as to diminish the influx of fresh blood, even when little of that 

 which is in the part is stagnant. 



The intensity of an inflammation is not alone a measure of 

 the probability of mortification ensuing, neither is mere debility, 

 for we see inflammations without mortification in Yery enfeebled 

 cases. Want of condition in an animal, if put to severe exertion, 

 will often cause mortification from excessive congestion, espe- 

 cially of the lungs, the mortification here seeming to arise from 

 complete stagnation of the blood in the pulmonary vessels, with 

 death of that blood. Again, in enteritis, mortification ensues 

 from severity of the congestive rather than the truly inflamma- 

 tory process. Cases of partial gangrene of the lungs, depending 

 on pneumonia affecting bad-constitutioned animals, more espe- 

 cially if such have been kept in ill-drained or iU-ventilated 

 stables, are not uncommon. 



When a mortification has a disposition to spread, its dark 

 colour is gTadually lost in the surrounding parts, whereas, when 

 it ceases to spread, a red line, called the line of demarcation^ 

 separates the dead from the living parts. This line is always 

 regarded as most important, indicating that sloughing has ceased 

 to spread, and that a process has begun for the removal of the 

 sphacelated part from the system. 



In this process, consolidation of the tissues by the formation 

 of organizable lymph precedes the suppuration and ulceration ; 

 and thus haemorrhage from the vessels and infiltration of the 

 decomposing material into loose structures are both prevented. 



