INFLAMMATION, 
397 
is there merely an increase of the powers of life? Do the nu¬ 
trient vessels continue to perform their healthy functions, but in 
a more vigorous manner ? Do they still secrete the proper elas¬ 
tic uniting substance ? No; they have received an altered sti¬ 
mulus from the organic nerves, exciting them to the performance 
of an altered function, and therefore it is that bone is secreted 
instead of the natural fibrous connecting medium, and we have 
splent. In more vascular parts, pus is the product of the altered 
action: witness the change from mucus to pus in the Schneide¬ 
rian membrane, the formation of abscesses, &c. In inflamma¬ 
tory attacks of the glands we have further confirmation that it is 
not merely an increase of vital properties, for in such cases we 
often find the secretion nearly stopped ; in inflammation of the 
kidneys, for example, we notice the gradual abatement of the 
flow of urine until at length it is nearly suppressed, and mingled 
with blood and pus. I would select the kidneys to illustrate still 
more plainly the difference between inflammation and a merely 
increased action :—we administer a combination of certain drugs, 
called diuretics, which, by some hitherto unexplained modus, sti¬ 
mulate the secerning vessels of the kidneys to an increased ac¬ 
tion ; the consequence is, an extra performance of their fuuction 
—an extra secretion of urine; but let these vessels add to this 
simply increased action the perverted action of inflammation, and 
a different train of results soon follows. If we recur to the mu¬ 
cus coat of the bladder, we notice the same phenomena; in a 
healthy state its vessels pour out a quantity of mucus to sheathe 
it from the irritating qualities of the urine; but in an inflamed 
state this fluid is changed to another, incapable of such office ; 
hence the great irritability, and constant efforts to discharge the 
contents. I might multiply these examples ad infinitum; but 
I hope I have already said enough to shew, that in inflammation 
there is a perverted action of the capillar if vessels. 
In my next paper I shall proceed to consider the terminations 
of inflammation. 
June 16, 1832. 
TWO CASES OF SUCCESSFUL DIVISION OF THE 
FLEXOR TENDONS OF THE FOOT. 
By Mr. W. Henderson, V. S., Edinburgh. 
In the year 1824, when out at the late Earl of Morton’s, seeing 
one of his lordship’s horses, under treatment for diseased vein, 
I was informed by the man who supplied the kennel with horse- 
