ith
an inflammation of the bowels; the one that has just been working so as
to increase its respiration will have an inflammation of the throat,
bronchi, or lungs; the one that has just been using its feet excessively
will have a founder or inflammation of the laminae of the feet.

The direct cause of inflammation is usually an irritant of some form.
This may be a pathogenic organism--a disease germ--or it may be
mechanical or chemical, external or internal. Cuts, bruises, injuries of
any kind, parasites, acids, blisters, heat, cold, secretions, such as an
excess of tears over the cheek or urine on the legs, all cause
inflammation by direct injury to the part. Strains or wrenches of
joints, ligaments, and tendons cause trouble by laceration of the
tissue.

Inflammations of the internal organs are caused by irritants as above,
and by sudden cooling of the surface of the animal, which drives the
blood to that organ which at the moment is most actively supplied with
blood. This is called repercussion. A horse which has been worked at
speed and is breathing rapidly is liable to have pneumonia if suddenly
chilled, while an animal which has just been fed is more liable to have
a congestive colic if exposed to the same influence, the blood in this
case being driven from the exterior to the intestines, while in the
former it was driven to the lungs.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms of inflammation are, as in congestion, change
of color, due to an increased supply of blood; swelling, from the same
cause, with the addition of an effusion into the surrounding tissues;
heat, owing to the increased combustion in the part; pain, due to
pressure on the nerves, and altered function. This latter may be
augmented or diminished, or first one and then the other. In addition to
the local symptoms, inflammation always produces more or less
constitutional disturbance or fever. A splint or small spavin will cause
so little fever that it is not appreciable, while a severe spavin, an
inflamed joint, or a pneumonia may give rise to a marked fever.

The alterations in an inflamed tissue are first those of congestion,
distention of the blood vessels, and exudation of the fluid of the blood
into the surrounding fibers, with, however, a more nearly complete
stagnation of the blood; fibrin, or lymph, a plastic substance, is
thrown out as well, and the cells, which we have seen to be living
organisms in themselves, no longer carried in the current of the