DISEASES OF THE EYE. 47 
TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 
“Tt must be admitted by all who contemplate the actual state 
of medical practice at the present day, that the use of bloud-let- 
ting aod of other antiphlogistic remedies, has, within a recent 
period, yreatly declined. According to Youatt and PERcIVALL, 
each remedies, and more especially blood-letting, were formerly 
tighly successful in arresting diseases, in the treatment of which 
we now know they not only fail, but are even highly injurions. 
The inference has been drawn from these supposed facts, that in- 
flammation itself is no longer the same; that its type has altered 
from an inflammatory to a typhoid character. In short, it seems 
to have been the opinion of certain writers that an advanced 
knowledge of physiology and pathology has had little influence 
in producing this great revolution in our treatment, but that the 
constitutions of animals are fundamentally altered, and that medi- 
cal men were as right in bleeding thirty years ago as they are 
correct in now abstaining from it. In opposition to these views, 
it will be my endeavor to show, Ist, That little reliance can be 
j'laced on the experience of those who, like Brain, PercrvaLt, 
and YOuATY, were unacquainted with both histology and organic 
chemistry, and, per consequence, the nature of inflammations ; 
2d, That inflammation is the same now as it has ever been; 3d, 
That the principles on which blood-letting and antiphlogistic 
remedies have hitherto been practiced are fallacious, and opposed 
to pathology ; 4th, That an inflammation once established can 
uot be cut short, and that the object of judicious medical practice 
is to conduct it to a favorable termination ; 5th, That all positive 
knowledge of the experience of the past, as well as the more ex- 
-act observations of the present day, alike establish the truth of 
the preceding propositions as guides for the future. 
ist J'roposrrion.— That little reliance can be placed on the ex- 
perience of those who, like BLAIN, PERCIVALL, and YOuatTt, were 
unacqurinted with histology, and, per consequence, the nature of 
ti Vlammations. 
Inflammation, for many years, was generally recognized, espe- 
cally in external parts, by the existence of pain, heat, redness, 
aad swelling, and in internal parts by fever, accompanied by 
pain and impeded function of the organ affected. In fact, groups 
of symptoms, in accordance with the nosological systems of the day, 
