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BRITISH ASSOCIATION.— 1835 
may be safely added, that no other change but this diminution or 
relaxation of contractile power has ever been perceived, either in 
them, or in the smaller vessels which come under the observation of 
the microscope, at least during the greater part, and in the highest 
intensity, of inflammation. 
But if it be inferred from these facts that inflammation consists 
merely in relaxation of vessels, giving an increased effect to the im¬ 
pulse of blood from the heart to the part affected, several facts may 
be stated to show that the explanation thus afforded is quite inade¬ 
quate. The change which takes place on the movement of the blood 
flowing to an inflamed part is, diminution of velocity or absolute 
stagnation in the vessels most affected, combined with increased ve¬ 
locity and increased transmission in all the neighbouring vessels; 
and it seems impossible to ascribe both these opposite effects to the 
same cause, viz. a simple relaxation or loss of power in the vessels 
concerned. Neither can the characteristic effusions consequent on 
inflammation, and by which alone it is uniformly distinguishable from 
simple congestion or serous effusion, (and particularly the increased 
quantity and increased aggregation of the fibrin that exudes from 
inflamed vessels,) be explained by this change of the action of the 
vessels. And further, the local causes which excite inflammation are 
not only such as in other instances produce an increase, instead of a 
diminution, of vital power, but they are such as have been ascertained 
to produce, when they are made to act on minute portions of indivi¬ 
dual vessels only, contraction instead of relaxation; as has appeared 
in the experiments of Verschuir, Thomson, Hastings, Wedmeyer, and 
others. 
The proper inference, therefore, appears to be, that the idea of an 
increased action of vessels in an inflamed part is indeed a delusion; 
but that there is a really increased action within the vessels of the 
part, i.e. an increased exertion of powers, by which the motion of 
the blood is affected, but the action of which is independent of the 
contractions of the living solids, and the effect of which is to cause 
distention and relaxation of the vessels, within which they act with 
unusual energy. 
2. The immediate object of the experiments on death by asphyxia 
was to ascertain whether the acceleration of the flowing blood 
through the lungs,—which is undoubtedly produced by respiration, 
and the failure of which appears, from the experiments of Williams 
of Liverpool, and of Kay of Manchester, to be the immediate cause 
of death by asphyxia, can be ascribed, as Haller and some very re¬ 
cent authors have supposed, to the merely mechanical influence of 
the alternate expansion and contraction of the lungs by the respi¬ 
ratory movements. 
That this is not the fact might be concluded from the fatal as¬ 
phyxia produced by breathing azote or other gases, not poisonous, 
but not containing oxygen; in which case it had been observed by 
Broughton and others, that the stagnation of blood in the lungs, and 
the distention of the right side of the heart, take place equally as 
