60 LADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY 



of inflaii.mation, draw an increased amount of blood toward th« 

 part? She does so, it seems to us, in obedience to one of hei 

 wisest laws, but one which has been too much ignored by medical 

 practitioners. It must be obvious, however, that an inflamma- 

 tion having occurred, the great work now to be accomplished is 

 the removal of the exudation — to eliminate from the inji^red part 

 tither directly by discharge externally, or by passage into thf 

 blood, to be finally excreted through the emunctorics. In all 

 such cases, the blood is not sent or determined, but drawn to the 

 part, in consequence of the increased actions going on in them ; 

 in short, it is absolutely imperative that the part in which these 

 changes go on should receive more blood than in health. But, 

 hitherto, medical practitioners have supposed that this phenome- 

 non is injurious, and ought to be checked by blood-letting and 

 antiphlogistic^. The rapid flow of blood, which is so necessary, 

 they have sought to diminish, and the increased amount in the 

 neighborhood of the part which is jo essential for the restoratioQ 

 to health, it has been their object to destroy. In doing so, we 

 argue they act in opposition to sound theory, and, as we shaL 

 afterward attempt to show, good practice, also. 



The inconsistency of the theraupeutical rules on this head will 

 become more manifest when we remember that it is necessary, in 

 the opinion of many medical practitioners, not only to weaken 

 the pulse when it is strong, but to strengthen it when it has been 

 made weak. Now, although it is obviously good practice to su])- 

 port the strength when the calls upon the nutritive functiojis 

 have exhausted the economy, it is injurious to diminish, by blood- 

 letting, the nutritive processes themselves, when they are busily 

 engaged in operating on the exudation and eliminating the mor- 

 bid products. In short, the phenomena of fever and excitability 

 accompanying inflammation have been wrongly inteipreted, and 

 danger is to be apprehended from them, not directly, but from 

 the subsequent exhaustion which all great exertions of the animal 

 economy produce. In themselves, these exertions are sanatiie, 

 and indicate the struggle which the economy is engaged in when 

 attempting to get rid of the diseased processes ; and whenever w« 

 lessen the vital powers at such a critical juncture, we diminish 

 the chances of that struggle terminating favorably. This propo- 

 (jition seems to be universally admitted in the case of essential 

 fevers, and its truth ought to be accepted equally in inflammat'oa. 



