A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by the late John Hunter. To which is prefixed, A short account of the author's life, by his brother-in-law, Everard Home.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1794
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the blood, inflammation, and gun-shot wounds / by the late John Hunter. To which is prefixed, A short account of the author's life, by his brother-in-law, Everard Home. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    t»] PART I. CHAPTER I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE BLOOD. As the blood is allowed by all to have a considerable share in inflamma- tion, or at least to be particularly affected by it, becoming, by its appear- ances, one of the signs or symptoms of its existence; and, as the blood is a material object with me in the theory of inflammation, I shall begin my treatise with its natural history, a previous knowledge of which is the more requisite, because the accounts of this fluid, hitherto given, will hardly explain any of its uses in the machine in health, or of its changes in disease. The heart and vessels are very active in inflammations; and as their structures and actions have not hitherto been understood, I have subjoined to the natural history of the blood an account of the structure of the heart and vessels, together with their actions in the machine; to which I have added one use of the absorbents not hitherto known. As every natural action of the body depends, for its perfection, on a num- ber of circumstances, we are led to conclude, that all the various combi- ning actions are established while the body is in health, and well-disposed; but this does not take place in diseased actions, for disease, on the con- trary, consists in the want of this very combination; and diseased actions, therefore, vary according to many natural circumstances, of which I pro- pose to point out a few of the most striking instances. Inflammation must have some exciting cause, and the same cause will produce an effect under one circumstance, which it will not under another. I have, therefore, begun with the supposition of an injury, attended with' such circumstances as do not excite inflammation, which will form a