TERMINATIONS OF INFLAMMATION. 0/ 



not only have to mark the acute and chronic 'kinds ; we shall 

 likewise meet with acute and chronic stages of inflamma- 

 tion ; for, in fact, it rarely preserves the same character 

 throughout its progress. Both its commencement and its 

 decline are mostly imperceptible. Notwithstanding, how- 

 ever, that these acute and chronic forms run into each other ; 

 and notwithstanding that they are both said to be inflamma- 

 tion, yet is the process difl'erent ; and, therefore, chronic 

 inflammation is followed by results which we never see in 

 the acute disease. It might be supposed that in chronic in- 

 flammation, there being commonly but little inconvenience 

 felt, there w^as little danger : this is an inference, however^ 

 that must not be too widely drawn ; often it happens that 

 chronic disease proceeds so imperceptibly as to make con- 

 siderable ravages before we are aware of its presence, and 

 then at a period too late to repair the mischief already ac- 

 complished. It too often happens in veterinary practice 

 that, trifling illness being manifested by an animal, the 

 master does not imagine it worth while to call in medical 

 aid, so that the foundation becomes laid for disease, and, by 

 the time we are consulted, it is out of the power of medicine 

 to alleviate the complaint. 



TERMINATIONS OF INFLAMMATION. 



No sooner is inflammation established than we begin to 

 look forward with more or less apprehension to its tehnina- 

 tions. These will be found to depend on its violence, its 

 duration, the cause that gave rise to it, the nature of the 

 part afiPected, the peculiar constitution of the animal, and a 

 variety of circumstances, such as the remedies employed, 

 must aim at counteracting. 



To the appearances I am about to describe, Mr. Hunter 

 affixed the name of terminations, from the circumstance of 

 the inflammatory action subsiding as soon as they had taken 

 place. Inflammation may terminate so early and so fiwora- 

 bly as to leave the part in an unimpaired condition. On 

 the other hand, the termination may be so protracted, or so 



