NEURO-PARALYTICAL INFLAMMATION. 351 



effects with this especial object) that an increased 

 afflux of blood may last for weeks an afflux of blood 

 accompanied by a marked elevation of temperature and 

 corresponding redness, as great, both of them, as we 

 ever meet with in inflammations without the produc- 

 tion of the least enlargement in the cells of the part, or 

 the excitation of any process of proliferation in them. 

 Irritation of the nerves may be combined therewith. 

 But when the tissues themselves are not irritated, when 

 the irritation is not made to act upon the parts them- 

 selves, either by the direct application of the irritating 

 matters, or by their introduction into the blood, the 

 occurrence of these changes cannot be relied upon. 

 This is a most important argument, from which I draw 

 the conclusion that these active processes have their 

 foundation in the special action of the elementary parts, 

 an action which does not depend upon an increased 

 afflux of blood or any excitation of the nerves, but 

 which is certainly promoted by them, though it can also 

 continue entirely independent of them, and manifests 

 itself with just as great distinctness in a paralyzed and 

 nerveless part. 



In support of these positions I will only add that 

 more recent observations have gradually done away 

 with the whole class of the so-called neuro-paralytical 

 inflammations. The two nerves with which we are 

 almost exclusively concerned in the discussion of inflam- 

 matory phenomena, are the pneumogastric and the fifth 

 pair, after the section of which, in one case, pneumonia, 

 in the other, those celebrated changes in the eyeball 

 have been observed to declare themselves. These ob- 

 servations have now been explained in this way, that 

 inflammations certainly may come on after such sections, 

 but that the real interpretation to be put upon them is, 



