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foreign body or matter from the system, and it may be ex-
cited to protect the surface of any organ from the contact of
some injurious or irritating substance as cantharides, &c. &c.
I will not enter into a detail of the various causes exciting in-
flammation, but content myself with remarking, that the differ-
ence in the phenomena of inflammation as to their different se-
verity, &c. probably does not depend upon any specific differ-
ence in the action, but the various differences depend on the
different parts affected, as to their irritability and distensibility,
and the violence of exciting causes, &c. &c. Inflammation,
as I before remarked, is an action, a simple operation of na-
ture ; this action is set up by the moving powers of the part
where the irritating cause is located, and the object of it is
to relieve the system of the irritating agent. These moving
powers for the support of their own action depend on a
principle derived from the arterial blood ; and as their action
is necessarily increased, so in order to support it, they must
have an increased quantity of arterial blood, and as they
command the capillary arteries, they stimulate these last
to bring an increased quantity of the fluid they circulate;
this of course distends all the capillary vessels of the part,
which produces a morbid or unnatural sensation which we
call pain, and the violence of the pain, will ever depend upon
the degree of the action ; and the distensibility of the part,
or of its power of swelling the capillary arteries of the part
becoming distended with blood, produces the redness and
swelling. I have now said all that I need say, to explain, at
least to myself, the reason why an inflammation of the lin-
ing membrane of a tooth, is so extremely acute, because so
confined, that swelling cannot take place ; but as I have
spoken of inflammation in general, and in some measure ex-
plained my views of this subject, and attempted to explain
the cause of the pain, swelling, and redness, which usually