38 DADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



consequence of our misguided notions of inflammation, and our 

 want of knowledge of a suitable remedy to treat it. But a 

 brighter day is dawning, and the antiquated notions of disease 

 and its treatment are fast giving way to a more rational and suc- 

 cessful system ; and the day is not far distant when blood-letting 

 for the cure of inflammation will be entirely abandoned. 



It is very gratifying to the author to be able to record that 

 many of the progressive medical writers of the present day are 

 on the right side of Nature, teaching us that " she is ever busy, 

 by the silent operation of her own forces, in the cure of disease ; " 

 and they are inaugurating a very great and desirable revolution 

 in the theory and practice of human as well as veterinary medi- 

 cine. 



NaUre of Inflammation. — The physical characteristics of in- 

 flammation are, as I have just written, redness, heat, pain, and 

 sometimes swelling. It is, and always was physiologically, oper- 

 ating for the good of humanity and the inferior orders of creation. 

 Its curative power none can dispute. We see it, in the form of a 

 blush, on the cheek of offended humanity. Friction, injuries, 

 poisons and disease, etc., excite Nature to hoist the symbol of dis- 

 tress—inflammation. She calls loudly for help, but she does not 

 always get it ; and instead of acknowledging her autocracy, and 

 furnishing what she wants to use in her own way, viz. : the water, 

 oil, and wine of the ancient Samaritans, we offer fire, knife, and 

 poison. 



Inflammation being an exalted condition of local arterial cir- 

 culation, it can only be excited by some mental emotion, injury, 

 loss of function, or by what is known as disease, in parts adjacent 

 or remote from its seat. Hence, all diseases of an acute charac- 

 ter are preceded and accompanied, to a certain stage or period, by 

 inflammation. Hence, also, according to ancient usage and the 

 dictum of alma mater, we are constrained to talk and write as 

 though inflammation was the great evil or disease which requited 

 our services; and thus we coquette with Nature by means of 

 sharp-edged tools, while the actual disease steals i march on us, 

 and we lose the patient in consequence of our want of knowledge. 



Treatment of Inflammation. — Inflammation bf . g more or less 

 active, according to the intensity of the disease £ which it is a 



