ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
244 
lect how beautifully Virgil describes these things in his first 
Georgic*. 
The Pain of an inflamed Part . — The sensibility of the nerves 
may be increased by certain changes of their condition or that 
of the parts on which they are distributed. Pain is the constant 
attendant on inflammation. This has been explained in various 
ways. The essence of inflammation, or the immediate conse- 
quence of it, has been said to be increased determination of 
blood, turgescence of the capillary vessels, increased interstitial 
deposit, and consequent compression of the neighbouring parts, 
and pain as the necessary result of that compression. It is, 
however, enough to say, that the sensibility or the function or 
action of every part is in proportion to the quantity of arterial 
blood — theprimum mobile with which they are supplied. Those 
parts which, in their natural state, are the most sensitive are 
those which are most abundantly furnished with bloodvessels, 
as well as with nerves ; and the increased sensibility in inflam- 
mation depends on the increased determination to the part pro- 
ducing a morbid discharge of the natural functions. 
Illustrations . — Is any laboured proof required that inflamma- 
tion is attended by acute pain in the quadruped as well as in the 
biped ? Take that singular disease in the horse, inflammation 
of the subcutaneous tissue of the hind leg, attended by enlarge- 
ment, sudden, painful, and enormous. The horse is well to-day, 
and to-morrow he is gorged from the fetlock to the sacrum. The 
whole of the integument is tense, red — red even in this animal 
whose skin is thick and covered with hair: it is of a glossy red, 
and an ichorous discharge is forcing itself through every pore of 
the distended integument. The very appearance bespeaks the 
torture which the animal endures ; and if the finger is laid on the 
part light as a feather, the leg is spasmodically caught up, the 
animal is thrown quite off his feet, and often falls upon and 
injures the incautious examiner. 
Observe the quickened pulse, the haggard countenance of the 
horse, labouring under acute founder, the continual shifting 
while he stands, the resting of the muzzle on the diseased part 
* Haud equidem credo quia sit divinitiis illis 
Ingenium, aut rerum fato prudentia major; 
Verum, ubi tempestas et coeli mobilis humor 
Mutavere vias, et Jupiter liumidus Austris 
Densat, erant quas rara modo, et quse densa relaxat : 
Vertuntur species animorum, et pectora motus 
Nunc alios, alios, dum nubila ventus agebat, 
Concipiunt ; hinc ille avium concentus in agris 
Et laetae pecudes et ovantes gutture corvi. 
Virg. Georg. /. 
