752 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
will produce the desired effect, use a blister, but in either case 
in two days after the application curative measures should be 
adopted to reduce or check this superficial inflammation, instead 
of allowing the formation of a thick scab, which will require 
two or three weeks to slough off. All that should be required 
of a blister is to set up an inflammation which wiil increase the 
activity of the parts and either relieve the morbid condition and 
hasten repair or hurry the inflammatory action to a natural ter¬ 
mination as seen in ankylosis. When repair is aided the cura¬ 
tive action is due to an increased activity of the circulation, the 
elimination and absorption of morbid products and the restora¬ 
tion of the natural functions. When the morbid process termi¬ 
nates in ankylosis, the increased circulation aids in the forma¬ 
tion of new tissues and its final calcification. 
DISCUSSION ON COUNTER-IRRITANTS. 
Dr. Stewart: In opening this discussion I must congratu¬ 
late the essayist upon his happy condensation of so broad a 
subject into concise statements, and especially the clearness 
with which he has given the technique of application of the 
counter-irritants in diseases of the extremities. It is perhaps 
in this field more than any other that counter-irritants are em¬ 
ployed. The paper does not deal particularly with the applica¬ 
tion of counter-irritants for the relief of internal diseases, yet it 
is probable that this was the original use for this class of agents. 
They were used for the relief of pain of a neuralgic character, as 
well as the results of inflammation, particularly in pleurisy. 
The paper does not exhaustively deal with the theories as to 
how counter-irritants produce their effect. It is held by some 
that the pain the irritation produces on the surface of the body 
at one point will lessen the arterial injection and nerve sensi¬ 
bility in some other part of the body, and it is this peculiar 
power which indicates their employment. It is a matter of 
common record that in cases of pleurisy in the first or dry stage, 
a sharp irritant applied over the chest wall is promptly fol¬ 
lowed by relief of the pain, and sometimes by the entire sub¬ 
sidence of the disease processes. Professor Williams, of Edin¬ 
burgh, is reported to have stated that counter-irritants were of 
little value to relieve pain or congestion or to modify chronic 
inflammations, and Findlay Dun records some experiments by 
Professor McCall which tend to show that powerful counter¬ 
irritation of the skin induces inflammation of the skin and sub¬ 
cutaneous tissues, but that perceptible changes do not occur in 
