58 INFLAMMATION. 



often compelled to judge of pain, may serve to convey some 

 idea of the disadvantages in practice^ under which the vete- 

 rinary surgeon labours. 



Swelling or tumour may cither predominate in inflam- 

 mation, or may be almost wanting, according to the nature 

 and situation of the part affected. One of the most remark- 

 able instances we have of swelling is furnished by strangles. 

 The tumour assumes the spherical form, being most promi- 

 nent in the middle, or where the inflammation runs highest, 

 and where the heat, as well as pain, are felt most acutely : 

 from this prominent part the swelling on every side declines, 

 becoming softer to the feel as it grows distant from the 

 centre. Parts whose texture is dense or fibrous — such as 

 tendon, ligament, cartilage, and bone — swell but little under 

 inflammation. Some parts are so closely enveloped by 

 unyielding fibrous sheaths, that they are prevented from 

 swelling to the extent they otherwise would : such is the 

 case in sprain of the back sinews, in which not half the 

 tumour is evinced which would appear were the sheath 

 itself ruptured; an accident which does sometimes attend 

 the lesion. In like manner, the eye, when internally 

 inflamed, is prevented from swelling by its fibrous case. 

 Most of all, however, the foot is worthy of observation in 

 this respect : however highly inflamed, though its vessels 

 become turgid under inflammation, it is impossible the parts 

 can swell ^ closely covered and walled in as they are by the 

 unyielding hoof. 



Impairmemt or Suspension of Function. — When the 

 eye is inflamed, vision is more or less impaired : should the 

 ear be in the same state, deafness is the consequence. In 

 inflammation of the kidneys, either no urine at all is 

 secreted, or little and of a morbid quality. In hepatitis^ 

 the dung of the animal is clay-coloured, from deficiency of 

 bile. When one, or any part, of the four limbs, is in an 

 inflamed condition, the animal halts or goes lame: a circum- 

 stance arising, in most cases, from two causes — from actual 

 inability of the moving powers to i)crforra their functions, 

 as well as the pain such movement causes to the animal. 



