48 



nifest. The part is likewise hotter, because, in a given time, there passes 

 through its tissue more arterial blood, from which a larger quantity of 

 caloric is disengaged, and the continued effects of the pulmonary respira- 

 tion are better marked in it than in any other organ. 



It forms no part of our intention to treat of the varieties of inflamma- 

 tion : they depend principally on the structure of the organ which is 

 affected, on the violence and rapidity of the symptoms, and on its 

 effects. 



Is not the turgescence of an inflamed part occasioned in the same man- 

 ner, as in parts subject to erection, as the corpora cavernosa of the penis 

 and of the clitoris, the nipples, the iris, 8cc. ? In erection of the penis, as 

 in inflammation, there is an irritation, a determination of fluids to the 

 part, an increase of sensibility and contractility; yet its condition is not 

 that of inflammation. Nature has so disposed the organization of these 

 parts, that they can sustain, without injury, those instantaneous augmen- 

 tations of vital energy, necessasy to the exercise of the functions per- 

 formed by the organs to which they belong. As in inflammation, these 

 congestions disappear, when the cause of irritation has ceased to act; 

 thus, the pupil dilates, because the iris recedes, when the eye is no longer 

 exposed to the rays of a vivid light. The penis returns to its naturally 

 flaccid and soft state, when no irritation operates to determine to it the 

 fluids, whose presence, as loug as the erection lasts, is easily explained 

 by the continuance of the irritation, without its being necessary to have 

 recourse to mechanical explanations, to account for that phenomenon. 

 When the irritation, which produces the vital turgescence of the penis 

 or iris, is tarried too far, or continues too long, the natural congestion 

 becomes morbid. It is well known, that priapism is frequently attended 

 with mortification of the penis, and that the too long continued action of 

 light on the eye, brings on inflammation of that organ. 



The preceding observations on inflammation show, that an acquaint- 

 ance with its phenomena is useful, even in a physiological point of view. 

 The vital processes, which in some organs take place in so obscure a 

 manner that they are imperceptible, acquire in inflammation a character 

 of rapidity and intensity, which renders it much easier to observe and 

 recognize them. Considered in a general and abstract point of view, 

 and merely with a reference to its object, inflammation may be consider- 

 ed as a means employed by nature, to repel the influence of noxious 

 agents, which, when introduced within the body, or on its surface, she 

 has no power of resisting, but by a more active developement of the pow- 

 ers which animate it. 



During the severe winter of 1793, the chemist Pelletier repeated the 

 cekferated experiment of freezing mercury, and obtained a solid ball in 

 the%alb of a barometer, which he had for along while kept immersed in 

 the midst of a quantity of ice, continually moistened with nitric acid. 

 When the metal had attained a completely solid state, he drew the ball 

 from the bulb, and placed it on his hand. The heat of the parr, joined to 

 that of the atmosphere, soon restored the quicksilver to its fluid state : at 

 the same instant, he experienced in his hand so intolerable a degree of 

 cold, that he was obliged to drop the quicksilver instantly. There soon 

 came on, in the painful and chilled part, a phlegmonous inflammation, 

 which was cured by resolution. Quicksilver, in a solid state, is one of 

 the coldest bodies in nature: how very rapidly the caloric must have 



