A treatise on inflammation / by James Macartney.

  • Macartney, James, 1770-1843.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on inflammation / by James Macartney. 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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    richly supplied with nerves, as well as blood-vessels. From finding, however, that the heat of animals keeps pace with their sensitive powers; that it is augmented by excitement, and diminished by causes which depress the other sensitive powers, I am disposed to ascribe the increased heat of inflamed parts, more to their state of local or organic sensibility, than to the condition of their arteries, as regards circulation or secretion. The redness of inflamed parts is easily accounted for; the arte- ries which only carry the colourless parts of the blood or the serum, becoming under inflammation so much dilated, that they admit the red blood. The opportunity of discovering this fact occurs in the inflammations of any of the naturally transparent membranes, as the pleura, peritoneum, &c, on which we may count the vessels that produce together the red colour of these membranes, when in- flamed. One of the most instructive examples is the inflammation of the transparent cornea, in which the red vessels are very dis- tinct. The degree of redness from inflammations equally severe, varies in different tissues according to the natural supply of red blood which such tissues receive, and likewise on the disposition of their blood-vessels to dilate under excitement. The vessels of the skin are peculiarly numerous and excitable ; and, therefore, when it is inflamed, theVedness has a painted or stained appearance, the ves- sels being so much crowded together, that they are not distinguish- able from each other. The same is found on the mucous membrane. When that part of the arachnoid coat, which loosely covers the brain is inflamed, no red vessels are visible, while there can be little doubt, that red blood enters the vessels of the arachnoid, where it lines and is incorporated with the dura mater. The redness of inflammation, is therefore a circumstance, depending, in a certain degree, on the original circulation and structure of the part. The kind of redness is also determined by the nature of the affec- tion, and the state of the circulating vessels in the inflamed part. Thus, in genuine erysipelas there is so little impediment to the pas- sage of the arterial blood into the veins, that gives the skin a bright or scarlet colour. Several other inflammations of the skin, as scarletina, rose-rash, herpes, &c, are distinguished by their bright colour; and, indeed, most inflammations of the skin, which do not involve the cellular substance underneath, assume more or less the colour of arterial blood. In these instances where inflammation is attended with much tumefaction, or hardness, the colour is more or less purple, or that of venous blood; because, under such cir- cumstances, the circulation is impeded, and, consequently, the blood longer detained, and thereby rendered venous, although still moving in the arteries. The purple colour is very remarkable in many scrofulous inflammations and tumours, in which the circulation is languid. It is difficult to explain the dusky-brown colour, which is observed in the spots of measles, syphilitic'blotches, in carbuncle, etc. It is