anied by changes or degenerations in the
other kinds of tissue.

The process of inflammation is commonly associated with symptoms of
heat, redness, swelling and pain, in greater or less degree, combined
with which a change in the function of the organ is soon noticed.
Micro-organisms are considered the primary cause of inflammation in
many or even in most cases in which mechanical or chemical influences
may undoubtedly be responsible primarily; and then again, each of these
causes may be either external--that is, may originate from the outside
world--or internal, that is, may be produced in and by the body itself.

The first pronounced change occurring in an organ under inflammation is
an increase in the rapidity with which the blood circulates through the
vessels--a so-called hyperemia--which soon gives place to a diminution
(stasis) in the current together with an exudation from the
blood-vessels; the latter is due to changes in the structure of their
walls. This exudation soon occasions a cloudiness of the connective
tissues and at the same time a desquamation (shedding in scales) of the
epithelia (cells of the thin mucous surface). An irritation of the
nerves also takes place.

The varieties of inflammation can be best apprehended by considering
the different characters of the exudation. The exudation may be watery
(called serous) or dense, the latter either fibrinous or albuminous.
With a serous exudation there is swelling of the connective tissue and
a desquamation of epithelia--the latter usually slight in
character--which constitutes what is known as a catarrh; while with a
fibrinous or albuminous exudation there is usually more or less
destruction of the tissue itself, when, for example, we have "croup" or
"diphtheria."

When the changes in the epithelia are only slight and secondary, it is
spoken of as an interstitial (lying between) inflammation, which
strictly speaking denotes confined to connective tissue, and is
therefore a term not entirely correct. When the inflammation of the
epithelia is severe and may lead to their partial destruction, it is
called a parenchymatous inflammation; that is, one involving the soft
cellular substance. There is still another variety, the suppurative,
which is the most intense of all, and indicates the production of an
abscess and the entire destruction of the tissue implicated.

Beside these general grades of inflammation there are special sorts
produced by specific m