Essay on inflammation / by John Hodgson.

  • Hodgson, John
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on inflammation / by John Hodgson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    into account; but in the consideration of inflam- mation as a particular Pathological condition, we have nothing to do with them, and they must be referred to head of “ Predisposing and Exciting Causes of Disease.” It is the business of the Physiologist and general Pathologist to explain (if he can) why the opera- tion of one stimulus should produce the natural and healthy action of a pai-t; while tha,t of another should give rise to an action altogether different and morbid; and when he does so (which will pro- bably be never), he may, with equal ease, explain why inflammation should at one time terminate in a simple increased secretion of natural tissues and fluids, and at another, in a secretion of matters al- together preternatural. Besides, alterations are practically of little importance, as almost aU our remedial means are simply those of increasing or diminishing action. 2d, Inflammation is frequently accompanied by increased action of the heart, but never of the ai- teries. 3d, Irregular distributions of blood are produced j>ri7narily by the capillaries retaining part of the blood which passes through them, and not by re- ceiving a gi-eater quaiitity from the arteries, al- though this last may lia])i)en afterwards, the arte-