A treatise on inflammation / By James Macartney.

  • Macartney, James, 1770-1843.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on inflammation / By James Macartney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    structure, except an increased vascularity around the perforations. The reproductive power of fishes is con- fined to their fins, which are sometimes regenerated after being lost by accident, or by a species of death which is quite different from that which is the conse- quence of inflammation in the higher classes of animals. I have never seen any appearance of inflammation in reptiles after wounds or injuries. Serpents often lose a portion of their tail; and although there is no attempt made for its reproduction, it is very speedily cicatrized without inflammation. Some lizzards are able to reproduce parts that are lost, though not so per- fectly as in the lower classes of animals. When lizzards get a new tail, it wants the vertebrae. The salamander has more power of reproduction than any other of the class, being capable, according to the statement of many physiologists, of regenerating the tail, the limbs, and the lower jaw. I have seen imperfect attempts at the reproduction of the fingers and toes in the toad and frog. In all this class of animals, there is great tenacity of life, and power of repairing the effects of injury, though not always the ability of regenerating limbs. Having had occasion to make the experiment of remov- ing a part of the brain of a toad, it became necessary to take away a considerable portion of the skull. The wound never seemed to inflame. In a very short time it was healed, and the vacancy in the skull was made up by a substance half cartilage and half bone, leaving, how- ever, a depression corresponding to the quantity of brain removed. In the class of birds we first discover the existence of genuine inflammation as the consequence of external