15 



CONGESTION. 



Congestion means that state of an organ which plethora 

 denotes of the system ; congestion is, in fact, local plethora ; 

 at least this is the sense in which it appears to be most 

 correctly used. It seems by no means a happily chosen 

 term^ though one much employed in modern medical 

 phraseology : its literal signification leading one to suppose 

 that there is some sort oi gathering or collection, and con- 

 sequent stagnation of fluid ; whereas it is meant to imply 

 that blood is circulating in greater abundance than at 

 ordinary times — in other words, that condition of the blood- 

 vessels which precedes inflammation, or holds an intermediate 

 station between that and health, without there being any 

 definite boundaries between either two of the three connected 

 states. If you prick or burn any part of the body, the 

 consequence is pain : the continuance of this rouses the vas- 

 cular energies of the part into increased action, and thus 

 produces inflammation, or something short of it, which we 

 call congestion. In this case, congestion arises from a deter- 

 mination of blood to the part : it may likewise originate in 

 some impediment or obstruction to the efflux of blood from 

 it, as happens whenever too tight bandages are applied. 

 Congestion does not necessarily amount to disease; and 

 yet it may exist to such a degree as will materially de- 

 range the functions, and so prove the forerunner of organic 

 mischief. 



While a sort of universal assent is yielded to the occasional 

 presence of repletion in the system at large, some have with- 

 held their belief of its existence in any particular organ or 

 part thereof; or have refused to acknowledge any inter- 

 mediate local condition between health and inflammation, 

 although they unhesitatingly admit that there may exist a 

 constitutional one between health and fever, which, in fact, 

 is nothing more than general inflammation. Even in theory 

 this position seems a very untenable one ; and that it is so 

 in practice, I shall now endeavour to prove, with the assist- 



