INFLAMMATION. 747 



agent which nature employs in repairing or rebuilding parts which 

 have been injured by accidents or disease. Thus, when a fracture 

 has taken place, the ends of the bone have to be united, inflam- 

 mation is set up, lymph is thrown out around the fractured ends, 

 small capillary vessels soon shoot into the coagula, from which 

 bony particles are deposited ; and thus by a process of inflamma- 

 tion the continuity of the parts is restored. Inflammation is often 

 made use of to cure diseases and remove callous enlargements. 

 Thus, when a thin opaque film is left on the eye, from a blow or 

 otherwise, a stimulating wash is injected to set up inflamma- 

 tion, to cause blood-vessels to shoot into it, and remove it by ab- 

 sorption. We blister callus enlargements for the same purpose. 

 It will thus be seen that inflammation in many cases becomes a 

 remedy instead of a disease, and is in all cases a necessary and 

 natural process for the repair of an injury. 



When a part presents the appearance of inflammation, becom- 

 ing red, hot, tender, and swollen ; and after a time these appear- 

 ances subside, without producing any alteration in the structure 

 or functions of a part, it is said to have terminated in Resolution. 

 When two cut surfaces are brought together, and exudation takes 

 place, and the surfaces are united, as hi the healing of a wound 

 by the first intention, it is called Adhesion. When an inflamma- 

 tory tumor, as that of Strangles, or " Horse Distemper, "at 

 first, hard, hot, and painful, goes on, softens in the middle, points, 

 and bursts, discharging a yellowish, creamy fluid, called pus, 

 it is said to terminate in Suppuration. 



When a part is tardy in healing, and presents an open spread- 

 ing sore, with red, irregular edges, presenting a mouse-eaten 

 appearance, discharging a thin, irritating pus, mixed up with the 

 debris of the tissues in which it is formed, floating in serum and 

 pus cells, it is said to be in a state of Ulceration. 



Gangrene, or mortification, that is, the entire death of the whole 

 or part of a tissue, is apt to occur when the inflammation has been 

 sudden and violent. When this has occurred, no recovery can 

 take place, as the blood-vessels and tissues are destroyed ; the part 

 generally becomes cold, the color becomes blue or purple, a fetid 

 moisture covers the surface, and noxious gases are evolved. There 

 is always a red line of demarkation between the dead and living 

 tissues ; and if the constitutional depression which generally ac- 



