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TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 



To lay down a scientific and rational plan of treatment, 

 we must be well acquainted with the condition the cure of 

 which it is our object to accomplish : we must have ascertained 

 its extent, learnt its history, and have formed in our mind 

 some theory of its nature. Fortunately for us, though 

 diseases are many, and though no part of the body is 

 exempt from their attacks, yet is the essential nature of struc- 

 tures pretty much alike, because the constituent textures 

 are in themselves but few. What renders disease in ap- 

 pearance so diversified is, the great dissimilarity that exists 

 between organs and their functions. Inflammation is essen- 

 tially the same, whether it exist in the stomach, the lungs, 

 or the brain ; but it assumes different aspects in these three 

 organs, and is productive of symptoms altogether opposed : 

 still, it is inflammation, of the same nature in all three 

 cases, and all the cases may have originated from similar 

 causes, nay, require to be treated on the same general prin- 

 ciples. When we come to couple with these facts the 

 important one, that the great majority of diseases consist in 

 inflammation, it will appear evident, that a knowledge of its 

 treatment must form the key to the curative art. 



Although our theory of inflammation is far from being 

 perfect, yet have we arrived, by careful observation, at very 

 correct conclusions in regard to the character, tendency, and 

 effects of inflammation : so that when we behold disease in 

 any part, we know at once what the probable result will be, 

 and by what rule of practice we should shape our plan of 

 treatment. We are partly guided by the nature of inflam- 

 mation ; but are principally ruled by the knowledge we 

 have gathered from experience. This accounts for our not 

 beino- able to treat diseases through the medium of books; 



