SECOND PART. 
DISEASES COMMON TO ALL TISSUES. 
CHAPTER I, 
INFLAMMATIONS—GANGRENE—FOREIGN BODIES 
I. 
INFLAMMATION. 
Whatever conception one may have of inflammation,—so varied may 
be its forms and causes,—it has never ceased to be a process that is met 
with in many of the very frequent diseases; and as it is yet “the 
principal phenomenon of pathology,” as in the past, it is proper to con- 
sider the general precepts for successfully overcoming it. 
The removal of the cause or the attenuation of its effects is the first 
thing to be considered in all cases of phlegmasia. If the inflammation 
is due to a foreign body implanted in the tissues, it should be extracted 
as soon as possible; if mechanical irritations keep it up—the collar in 
the case of a dog, the harness in the case of draught animals, the shoe 
in some lesions of the foot—they must be removed; and again, if, as 
observed in some skin diseases (eczema), or those of other tissues 
(rheumatism), the inflammationis due to a dyscrasical or infectious 
cause, an internal treatment must be instituted. 
Another precaution, which should be taken in all cases of inflammation 
in the beginning, is to insure the immobilization of the diseased part, 
and to keep it in a state of rest as complete as possible. 
Aseptic traumatic inflammations may be seen with various degrees of 
intensity, but they are seldom violent, and they naturally have a ten- 
dency towards resolution. Even the most severe do not resist for any 
length of time a well directed treatment. In their first stage, they are 
ordinarily treated with cold applications, with which one tries to control 
them, to moderate the congestive tendency, and to prevent the intersti- 
tial hemorrhages. Cold (water, ice, snow) produces a constriction of 
the tissues, a contraction of the blood vessels, and diminishes the hyper- 
cemia of the inflamed parts ; under its influence, the heat, swelling and 
redness diminish. But its application must be long or continuous ; if 
it is often interrupted, a reaction will follow the ease temporarily pro- 
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