66 INFLAMMATION. 



should probably be enabled to connect disease with its 

 origin in every instance. But at the present time we are 

 in the dark concerning internal causes : we want know- 

 ledge^ also, about those which are external ; and we likewise 

 are ignorant as to the effects of atmospheric influence. 



Sympathetic Inflammations are such as owe their origin 

 to disease already existing. Mr. Hunter showed us Iiow 

 apt one set of parts were to take on disease when another 

 were sufi'ering ; and Mr. Abernethy has prosecuted the sub- 

 ject with a success truly enviable. This last author has fully 

 demonstrated the effects of local disorders on the constitu- 

 tion ; he has also developed the operation of constitutional 

 disorders on local diseases : he has likewise placed the sub- 

 ject in a practical point of view which has materially benefited 

 both surgery and medicine. In man, the digestive organs 

 oftener than any other evince disorder; in the horse, the 

 respiratory apparatus is the most common seat of disease : 

 both which sets of organs may generate disease in other 

 parts of the body. The skin sympathises readily both with 

 the digestive and pulmonary organs. The same may be 

 asserted of the kidneys and the brain. There exists a 

 striking sympathy between analogous structures : disease of 

 one serous membrane is followed by disorder in another ; so 

 it happens with the mucous, and likewise with the fibrous 

 membranes. Sympathy is evinced in a remarkable manner 

 between felloAV-organs on opposite sides of the body : one 

 eye is no sooner affected with ophthalmia than we begin to 

 entertain appreKensions for the opposite organ. 



PROGRESS OF INFLAMMATION. 



The progress of inflammation depends on its nature, 

 the part it is affecting, the condition of the animal, and 

 other circumstances. It often assumes the violent form, 

 and runs its course rapidly ; or, in technical language, it is 

 of the acute character. At times, however, it appears of a 

 different aspect — in a mild, sluggish, or indolent form 

 — being then of the chronic description. But we shall 



