324 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



are, as regards the blood vessels, arteries and veins, more or less 

 dilatation, which gradually increases for some hours and then for 

 awhile remains stationary. The circulation of the blood in the 

 affected area is marked by increased rapidity in the early stages; 

 after an excess of blood has flowed into the affected area a change 

 takes place; the rate of flow slows down and ultimately this is 

 followed by stagnation; an unusually large number of red cor- 

 puscles are crowded into the space so invaded; this is the state of 

 affairs so far as the central area is concerned; just outside the 

 affected zone there is an area in which the circulation is observ- 

 able, though sluggish in character, while on the outside of all the 

 current of blood keeps up a rapid circulation, as though to com- 

 pensate for the sluggish and stagnant condition of the central 

 portion. In the blood itself important changes are effected; the 

 white corpuscles accumulate in the vessels, especially the veins, 

 and consistent with their natural tendency, they adhere to the 

 -walls until layer after layer is formed and the lumen of the vessel 

 is blocked up, thus bringing about a stoppage of the blood flow; 

 after a time it would seem that they migrate and ultimately force 

 their way through the walls of the bloodvessels; their ability to 

 effect this change of location is due doubtless in no light degree ■ 

 to their capacity of effecting an alteration in shape; as liberated 

 white corpuscles they are known by the name of leucocytes, under 

 which condition they wander about among the surrounding tissues; 

 the red corpuscles are endowed with similar capacity to segregate 

 together, and to effect a passage through the walls of the blood ves- 

 sels, chiefly the capillaries, whose walls are of much more delicate 

 fabrication than either arteries or veins; at the same time they do 

 not migrate so freely as do the white corpuscles. The liquid por- 

 tion of the blood (or at all events some of its consistent elements) 

 ■exudes through the vessels and spreads itself over the surround- 

 ing tissues. Now! what about the tissues through which the 

 blood vessels pass and among which the blood, that has wandered 

 •out of the vessels, has become distributed; passing reference must 

 be made to the fact that muscle, skin, mucous and serous mem- 

 branes, and all other tissues when reduced to their primary 

 elements consist of cells; it is these cells that the inflammatory 

 process acts upon, either destroying them entirel3^ or so interfer- 

 ing with their nutrition that thev are starved and die; this fact 



