40 OF VITAL MOTION. 



The operation of the force originating in nutrition 

 may be seen in the phenomena of capillary circulation, 

 if we contrast the opposite conditions of inflammation 

 and anaemia. The abstract idea of inflammation 

 consists, as it were, in the emancipation of some of 

 the smaller vessels from their subservience to the 

 heart in the return to an early type of circulation 

 and in the establishment of an unnatural focus 

 of movement, to which an undue afflux of blood 

 is determined. In this state the vessels exhibit 

 the highest degree of vitality, and are fully dis- 

 tended with blood; while, at the same time, the 

 increased manifestation of heat shows that this con- 

 dition is attended with an inordinate amount of 

 common force. In anaemia, on the contrary, where 

 the watery blood is insufficient to the fit discharge of 

 the function of nutrition, the capillaries are shrunk 

 and exsanguine ; and this condition is always accom- 

 panied with an absence of the natural degree of 

 animal heat. Contrasting, therefore, the history of 

 inflammation with the opposite state of anaemia, we 

 may, without the assumption of any unintelligible 

 agency, explain the peculiar condition of the vessels 

 at the time, as the natural consequence of the degree 

 of ordinary force resulting in the nutrient changes, to 

 which at the time the vessels are subjected. 



The history of the function of respiration is written 

 in such plain terms, that it can scarcely be doubted 



