INFLAMMATION. 325 



"will be better understood if we call to mind that the skin, ov'er an 

 inflamed sore, dies and peels off; this serves as an illustration of 

 the result of inflammation when it proceeds to extremes or is not 

 arrested by medical treatment. The foregoing is a rough and 

 ready statement of what takes place during the development of 

 inflammation; but when the process is arrested or stays its pro- 

 gress of its own accord, what becomes of the blood corpuscles, 

 white and red, et cetera, which have got out of their normal 

 channel and are hence nothing less than foreign products among 

 the other tissues ? 



Something must be done with them; they must either be re- 

 stored to their original locality or be disposed of in some way. 

 The term resolution is applied to the change which has to take 

 place in order that nature may be restored to her original state; 

 resolution consists of a subsidence of the vascular disturbance; the 

 absorption of the exuded elements; the corpuscles have to undergo 

 a. change, similar to fatty degeneration, to enable them to be re- 

 absorbed into the blood vessels. The fluid portions of ihe exuda- 

 tion that are not resolved in the manner referred to may, according 

 to their characteristics, remain among the tissues or collect into a 

 :given space; while these and the corpuscles also develop pus and 

 bring about what is known as the suppurative process; the pus 

 collects in cavities, or invades the substance of tissues and organs, 

 forming abscesses; while still further results of inflammation may 

 l)e enumerated in softening and general destruction of affected 

 tissues; thickening and induration of tissues; ulceration and death 

 of the affected parts. 



Whether we have succeeded in producing anything like an 

 understandable explanation of what is involved in the inflamma- 

 tory process or not, we trust that, at least, it is made plain that 

 by inflammation of this organ or that, something more than a 

 commonplace change has been effected, and that the term is not a 

 mere vague expression without any definite characteristics of its 

 own. 



