Inflammation is a hypernutrition of a tissue.

Inflammation is a hypernutrition of a tissue.

Inflammation is a hypernutrition of a tissue. It is described by Dr. Agnew, the surgeon, as "a double-edged sword, cutting either way for good or for evil." The increased nutrition may be moderate and cause a growth of new tissue, a simple increase of quantity at first; or it may produce a new growth differing in quality; or it may be so great that, like luxuriant, overgrown weeds, the elements die from their very haste of growth, and we have immediate destruction of the part.

According to the rapidity and intensity of the process of structural changes which takes place in an inflamed tissue, inflammation is described as acute or chronic, with a vast number of intermediate forms. When the phenomena are marked it is termed sthenic; when less distinct, as the result of a broken-down and feeble constitution in the animal, it is called asthenic. Certain inflammations are specific, as in strangles, the horsepox, glanders, etc., where a characteristic or specific cause or condition is added to the origin, character of phenomena, or alterations which result from an ordinary inflammation. An inflammation may be circumscribed or limited, as in the abscess on the neck caused by the pressure of a collar, in pneumonia, in glanders, in the small tumors of a splint or a jack; or it may be diffuse, as in severe fistulas of the withers, in an extensive lung fever, in the legs in a case of grease, or in the spavins which affect horses with poorly nourished bones. The causes of inflammation are practically the same as those of congestion, which is the initial step of all inflammation.