INFLAMMATION. 
389 
Inflammation; and upon that statement to ground our remarks. 
There has been a strange and wide discrepance of opinion amongst 
authors who have attempted to define the word; some shaping 
their course under the idea that the capillary vessels are in a 
state of increased action; others, that they are in a state of de¬ 
creased action: some, that there is an obstruction in their tubes 
in consequence of the viscidity of the blood ; others, again, that 
they are in a state of spasm; See. Sec. It is not for me to pre¬ 
tend to set the opposed parties right, but, in order to embody my 
thoughts upon the point, I must state that definition which most 
clearly conveys my idea of what inflammation really is. I would 
say, then, that inflammation is an increased and perverted action 
of the arterial capillary system, characterized by heat , redness, 
swelling, pain , and a disposition in the part to alter its secretions. 
This is confined to inflammation abstractedly considered, as it 
exists locally; but, independent of the characteristics I have 
enumerated, it is attended by a sympathetic derangement of the 
sanguiferous, nervous, digestive, and secretory systems, consti¬ 
tuting in the aggregate symptomatic or sympathetic inflamma¬ 
tion, of which I shall speak hereafter, though my observations 
will be chiefly confined to inflammation as a topical affection. 
For inflammation really to exist, it is necessary that the first four 
symptoms I have mentioned be combined, because, taken sepa¬ 
rately, they offer no proof of its existence whatever; thus, if a 
part be held near the fire, heat is produced: in the human sub¬ 
ject redness occurs in blushing, and may readily be demonstrated 
by mechanical and chemical means : we have swelling in ana¬ 
sarca, and pain is a consequence of a variety of affections, but in 
none of these instances does inflammation necessarily exist; in 
fact, to constitute inflammation there must be a combination of 
heat, redness, swelling, and pain. This is required in very slight 
cases, but, when the affection proceeds, we shall soon have an ad¬ 
dition to the symptoms by a disposition in the part to alter its 
secretions; or probably I should be more correct in saying, that 
this disposition has its existence at the very commencement— 
that it is essential to the very being of inflammation, but that some 
time must elapse before its power can be felt, or the habituated 
action of the secretory vessels changed. 1 am here speaking of 
the affection in the abstract; but there is such a variety in the 
process dependent upon the structure of the organ in which it 
exists, and the nature and cause of the process itself, that no 
general description can be applied to all cases. I will, therefore, 
select an instance of common occurrence, and point out the phe¬ 
nomena attending it as a general type of that disturbance which 
is designated by the term inflammation. 
