The first lines of the practice of surgery: designed as an introduction for students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners (Volume 1).

  • Samuel Cooper
Date:
1822
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first lines of the practice of surgery: designed as an introduction for students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    of all inflammation. Parts, in which the blood circulates vigorously, generally bear inflammation best. But, vital organs, though exceedingly vascular, do not undergo in- flammation favourably, because, as Mr. Hunter remarks, the natural operations of universal health depend so inti- mately upon their sound and undisturbed condition. A low, depending position has likewise a bad effect upon in- flammation, probably, as Mr. Hunter conceived, by retarding the return of blood in the veins. All new-formed parts, such as cicatrices, and many kinds of swellings and excres- cences, are well known to be incapable of bearing any serious degree of inflammation, an attack of which makes them either mortify or ulcerate. The redness of inflamed parts appears to arise from the dilatation of small vessels, veins* as well as arteries, which become large enough to admit the red globules in abundance.! Mr. Hunter had an idea, that the redness partly depended, in some instances, upon the generation of new vessels. In ordi- nary cases, however, none of the redness can be ascribed to such a cause ; for a part may be reddened in a few seconds by friction, the application of heat, &c. in which circumstance, there cannot be time for the formation of additional vessels. Nor is it easy to fancy how new-formed vessels could be re- moved so quickly, as they would be in cases where the in- flamed parts rapidly fall into their natural state again, retaining not the slightest vestige of increased vascularity. The fact also of many parts, which are naturally colourless, being rendered quite red by anatomical injection, tends to prove, that the distention of vessels already existing, will alone account for the increased redness. Yet, we are, with a celebrated pro- fessor, J duly to remember the curious circumstance of blood- vessels becoming visible during inflammation in organs, which can never be made to indicate any vascularity, as far as can be learned from the use of fine anatomical injections l a fact, which induces Meckel to adopt the Hunterian doctrine, that new vessels are sometimes actually produced in the process of inflammation, particularly when it affects parts, which are not very vascular, like the cornea. Perhaps, says he, a va- riety of organization may make an important difference in this respect. As in very vascular organs, the small vessels carry red blood, probably no new vessels are formed in in- flammation, and the original ones are only distended ; while * Hunter on the Blood, &.c. p. 282. Thomson's Lectures on Inflammation p. 87. Op. cit. p. 283. t See Note [A.] t See Meckel's Handbuch der Pathologischen Anatomie 2ter. b. 2ter abth