ORGANISATION OF INFLAMMATORY PRODUCTS. 115 



contraction of the vessels, and so to clieck the progress of the 

 exudation, to hinder the further migration of the colourless cor- 

 puscles. It is not till we have followed out this indication to the 

 utmost, that we ought to resort to the application of warmth. 

 Warmth is a two-edged weapon. What guarantee have we that 

 instead of a dissolution of the exuded matters, which is of course 

 om- first object, there may not occur a greater concentration of 

 amoeboid cells at the heated point, ie. suppuration and the 

 formation of an abscess ? Within certain limits, warmth acts as 

 a resolving agent ; beyond these, it stimulates the inflammatory 

 process ; in the former case it promotes the farther migration of 

 the already exuded white blood-coipuscles, in the latter it helps 

 to renew the migratory process, and adds to its intensity. 



Note. — A therapeutic turn has been given to this section, to show 

 the student how immediately the results of morbid histology may be 

 brought to bear upon practice. ^ 



B. Organisation. 



§ 93. Granting that the inflammatory exudation does not 

 tend to resolution, the first alternative is its retention as a perma- 

 nent constituent of the organic framework of the body. This 

 retention is operated by the timely development of blood- 

 vessels, and the conversion of the embryonic tissue into fibrillar 

 connective tissue. The interstitial inflammations of internal 

 viscera, which we shall hereafter meet with in the liver and 

 kidneys, afford examples of this direct organisation on the largest 

 scale. None of these examples can however be regarded as 

 typical for the histological details of the process, because of pecu- 

 liarities of local origin. The honour of serving as a type belongs 

 exclusively to the process of repair in wounds, and primarily 

 indeed to those which heal by first intention. 



To illustrate the universal distribution of connective tissue 

 throughout the body, I stated above, that no incision could be 

 made without implicating connective tissue, without the presence 

 of connective tissue on the cut surface. The truth of this pro- 

 position may be inferred from the consideration, among other 

 processes, of the perfectly typical course of those phenomena 

 which manifest themselves in the reunion of completely divided 

 parts. These phenomena fall bodily under the head of inflam- 



