Page:The third Huxley lecture.pdf/34

30 most injurious agent when operating very mildly may stimulate function without impairing power.

Active congestion, or arterial dilatation with consequent free flow of blood through the capillaries, is an early and prominent symptom of inflammation of a vascular part in man. Unlike the morbid condition which is produced by the application of irritants to the frog s web, it is brought about indirectly through the nervous system. A striking illustration of this was presented in a case which occurred at the period to which I have been referring. A schirrous mamma had been removed by transverse incisions, together with a considerable amount of integument; and the cutaneous margins had been brought together, in spite of a good deal of tension, by means of a few stitches. Two days later I found the lips of the wound gaping slightly; but the sutures, though subjected to much traction, were still holding; while the skin presented an inflammatory blush extending both upward and downward from the wound, so that it occupied an area of about 4 inches in breadth. I removed the sutures, and I particularly noticed that no blood escaped from any stitch-track. The procedure occupied about two minutes and (to quote from a note taken at the time) "no sooner had I done this than I observed that the