on some substance in the cells of the nature of glycogen. This reaction
is absent in serous effusions, in unmixed tuberculous infections, in
uncomplicated typhoid fever, and in the early stages of cancerous
growths.




CHAPTER III

INFLAMMATION


Definition--Nature of inflammation from surgical point of
view--Sequence of changes in bacterial inflammation--Clinical
aspects of inflammation--General principles of treatment--Chronic
inflammation.

Inflammation may be defined as the series of vital changes that occurs
in the tissues in response to irritation. These changes represent the
reaction of the tissue elements to the irritant, and constitute the
attempt made by nature to arrest or to limit its injurious effects, and
to repair the damage done by it.

The phenomena which characterise the inflammatory reaction can be
induced by any form of irritation--such, for example, as mechanical
injury, the application of heat or of chemical substances, or the action
of pathogenic bacteria and their toxins--and they are essentially
similar in kind whatever the irritant may be. The extent to which the
process may go, however, and its effects on the part implicated and on