sS — - Dr. Young’s Lecture on the Functions 
attended by less heat than the former ; and where the obstruc- 
tion is very great, it may perhaps lead immediately to a morti- 
fication, which is called by the Germans “ a cold burning.” 
The most usual causes of inflammation appear to be easily 
reconcileable with these conjectures. Suppose any consider- 
able part of the body to be affected by cold ; the capillary 
vessels will be contracted, and at the same time the tempera- 
ture of some parts of their contents will be lowered, from both 
of which causes the resistance will be increased, and the arte- 
ries in general will be more or less overcharged : if then any 
other part of the system be at the same time debilitated or over- 
heated, its arteries will be liable to be morbidly distended, and 
an inflammation may thus arise, which may continue till the 
minute vessels are supported and strengthened, by means of 
an effusion of coagulabie lymph. The immediate effect, either 
of cold or of heat, may also sometimes produce such a degree 
of debility in any part, as may lay the foundation of a subse- 
quent inflammation : but the first effect of heat in the blood- 
vessels appears to be the more ready transmission of the blood 
into the veins, by means of which they become very observ- 
ably prominent : and cold, which checks the circulation in the 
cutaneous vessels, probably occasions a livid hue, by retaining 
the blood stagnant longer than usual in the capillary vessels 
of all kinds. It may be objected, that an obstruction of the 
motion of the blood through a great artery ought, u pon these 
principles, to produce an inflammation in some distant part : 
but in this case, the blood will still find its way very copiously 
into the parts supplied by the artery, by means of some col- 
lateral branches, which will always admit a much larger 
quantity of blood than usually passes through them, whenever 
