Inflammation regarded as a physiological reaction to an infecting lesion : the oration of the Hunterian Society, delivered at the London Institution, February 11th, 1885 / by F. Charlewood Turner.

  • Turner, Francis Charlewood, 1843-1900.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inflammation regarded as a physiological reaction to an infecting lesion : the oration of the Hunterian Society, delivered at the London Institution, February 11th, 1885 / by F. Charlewood Turner. 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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    vascular stasis^ disturbing without arresting its nutri- tive function^—being reduced to a state approximating to that of a non-vascular structure^ (but not, as has been stated, to the condition of ordinary matter while vitality remains,) is necessarily in a state of diminished vitality and of arrested function ; and, at the same time, it is necessarily also in a condition in which there is a modi- fication of the process of nutrition, adapted to the altera- tion in its structural arrangements. And we know that this necessary modification of the nutritive process in damaged tissue is, in fact, provided for (1) by the coagu- lation of the blood in the relaxed or wounded vessels, and of the plasma exuded from them—this constituting the first step in the process of repair of injured tissues, in operation from the moment of the infliction of the injury —the fibrinous coagulum closing up the divided vessels in a wounded part, and forming the temporary uniting medium between its surfaces, and in every condition of damage from injury or disease, affording support to the weakened structures, and sustaining their nutrition by forming a sponge-like structure permeable to the nutri- tive fluids j and (2) by an increased afflux of blood to the part, compensating for the effect of the impediment pre- sented to its nutritive function, comparatively slight where the effects are those of mechanical injury alone, but more or less intense where an irritant substance is present. When, therefore, it is said that inflammation is “ a change wrought in the natural act of nutrition then existing in the wounded part” (Bowman), or ^^a modi- fication of the existing normal processes” (Goodsir), or when it is stated, on the other hand, that it is a con- dition of lessened vitality and arrested function, according