114 RESOLUTION. 



issue of tlic Inflammatory process depends^ we find three leading 

 tendencies ; the first towards Resolution, the second towards 

 Organisation, the third towards Suppuration. 



A. Resolution. 



§ 92. Tt is clear that if our therapeutic skill availed to remove 

 the cells which have migrated into an inflamed organ, that organ 

 would return to the state in which it was before the inflammation 

 set in. I put aside the alterations in the connective-tissue fibres 

 described in the preceding section, alterations which might of 

 course disappear with equal ease. The possibility of inflamma- 

 tion issuing in resolution, and the means of bringing about this 

 issue, are questions therefore of the highest practical interest. 

 The first measure which would suggest itself a priori, would be 

 to help the cells ip pursue the course they had already chosen, 

 i.e. to let them migrate farther. Warmth and moisture would 

 therefore be advantageous from this point of view. Elevation 

 of temperature is known moreover to accelerate the movements 

 of amoeboid cells. When the inflammatory exudation is mode- 

 rate in amount, and the irritant cause has ceased to operate, wo 

 may hope, by local elevation of temperature, to distribute the 

 cells which have already migrated over a wider area, and to 

 guide them gradually into the lymphatics. , 



The resolution of an inflammatory infiltration may also take 

 place by fatty degeneration of its cellular elements. We have 

 already seen how fatty degeneration converts cells of all kinds 

 into a milky emulsion, to the reabsorptiou of which there is 

 naturally no obstacle. A condition which appears to favour the 

 commencement of fatty degeneration is the presence of fluid in 

 abundance at the seat of inflammation. Busch has made the 

 interesting observation that under the influence of cutaneous 

 erysipelas some large sarcomatous growths underwent atrophy, 

 and I had the opportunity of convincing myself in a similar case 

 that the cells of the sarcoma succumbed to fatty degeneration. 

 External warmth is well adapted for maintaining an enduring 

 hyperaemia of this sort. Notwithstanding this twofold indica- 

 tion, great caution is requisite in deciding on the exact moment 

 at which to substitute warm for cold applications to an inflamed 

 part. The object of applying cold is to bring about an artificial 



