In explaining the "Rationale of inflammation" Dr. Trall said, Hydropathic Encyclopedia, (1851,) Vol. 2, p. 108: "Inflammation as well as fever, is the effort of the vital powers to protect the organism from injurious mechanical, chemical, or vital irritants, or to expel morbific materials. This is proved by the phenomena of a multitude of morbid conditions. When a part of the body becomes gangrenous or dead, the living parts, provided there is sufficient vitality remaining in them, immediately form a line of demarcation, and the dead portion is soon separated from the living; this process is called sloughing. "When a chemical or mechanical body is imbedded in the flesh too firmly to be removed by absorption, as a bullet or a splinter, purulent matter is formed around it, and its further action, on the parts is partially or wholly prevented by inclosing it in an abscess. When a grain of calomel gets into the lacteal vessels, the mesentric glands, which may be regarded as organic inspection officers, receive an increased determination of blood, swell up, or inflame, and thus retard the contraband article, until it can be more or less modified or destroyed by the vital powers. When a structure is divided, as by an incised wound, coagulable lymph is poured into the wound, forming, as it were, a bed for newly formed vessels to reunite the part--a process called adhesive inflammation. And when a portion of flesh is torn away by violence, or decomposed by corrosives, or burned out with fire, a covering of purulent matter is thrown over the exposed surface, beneath which granulation--a new growth of substances--gradually fills up the cavity."

Emmett Densmore in "How Nature Cures," (1892) p. 5, after describing the processes of healing a cut, a broken bone and of expelling a sliver that has become imbedded in the flesh, says: "These everyday occurrences are as familiar to the layman as to the physician; but the strange part of it is the fact that almost no one--layman or physician-- seems to understand that these and like processes of nature are all the healing force there is."

Again, (page 7) : "The feat of engineering performed by the ruling force of the organism in building a bone ring support around adjacent ends of a broken bone may very properly be defined as a curative action on the part of this ruling force. The inflammation and pain consequent upon the presence of a sliver or any foreign body in the flesh, the formation of pus, and the subsequent expulsion from the body of both the pus and the foreign body which caused it, are further expressions of curative action. It is one of the objects of this publication to adduce conclusive proofs that disease and all manifestations of disease are friendly efforts and curative actions made by the organism in its efforts to restore the conditions of health."

In his "Vital Science," (1899) pp. 280-281, Dr. Robert Walter says: "The living organism is hourly in process of repair and waste. Waste and repair are facts of Life which are always being carried forward in the animal economy, at least. And this is a fact of physiology--a process of health. But extraordinary processes of repair may also be necessary at times, and these are often painful, laborious, and exhaustive. They cannot be called healthful. They are pathological processes, and therefore diseases. They are abnormal in answer to abnormal conditions but they are curative all the same. In the emergencies of life, if a wound is suffered, Nature at once begins a process of repair. At first it is naturally a process of resistance to further injury. It is called irritation, and soon becomes inflammation, which is the immediate process of healing. Then follows, in many cases, a process of purification. The parts are liquified in order to expulsion; and this is called suppuration. By and by granulation appears; and this is the ultimate process of healing. The process is a disease process, every step in it having an object in view. The symptoms are the symptoms of disease The heat is increased because of increased activity in the nutritive processes. There is an abnormal redness for the same reason that there is increase of heat. And there is swelling due to the increase of nutritive material in the parts. Pain also is usually present because of pressure on sensitive nerves or from excessive labor. But the process is a process of healing, which is properly called inflammation, a real disease.

"***Suppuration, we have said, is a cleansing process. It seldom occurs except where contact with the external world has introduced foul matters which must be eliminated. A broken bone, for instance, if there is no external wound, seldom suppurates. Never does so unless the blood is very foul and itself introduces impurities into the wound. Nor does fever, any more than inflammation, ever proceed to destructive processes except because of exceeding foulness within."

I have, in the above quotations, only touched the high spots of the past. I need hardly add that all nature cure, or hygienic, as well as all hydropathic and physio-medical practitioners have regarded inflammation as a curative process and many of them have acted upon this. In short, holding that "disease" and every manifestation of "disease" is a beneficient effort to restore health, they have from the start regarded inflammation in the same light.

As before stated, the fact that inflammation is constructive has now found its way into medical theory, although it is ignored in medical practice. For instance, Lipshutz, a standard medical author, says: "Inflammation is a manifestation of the effort made by a given organism to rid itself of, or render inert, certain obnoxious irritants arising from within or introduced from without." This definition does not differ from that given by Dr. Trall seventy-five years ago at which time the medical profession scoffed at the idea and called all who then believed such "nonsense," quacks, charlatans, and other such pleasing terms. Calling one's unnecessary opponents ugly names is not a monopoly of street urchins and theologians. Scientists and pretended scientists also indulge quite freely in this unproductive folly.

In a previous chapter we presented evidence that it is a definite property of all living things that repair takes place following injury and that the process of repair is accomplished almost wholly by an accentuation of the ordinary processes of life--nutrition, drainage, growth, and maintenance. A very remarkable example of this fact is presented to us by the phenomena of inflammation. The following analysis of this manifestation of life, will convince the student of its protective purpose and constructive powers; for inflammation is one of the most remarkable examples of the healing processes of the body.

Many of the changes that occur in a tissue after injury may be watched under the microscope. If the thin membrane between the toes of a living frog be placed under the microscope and then injured by pricking it, or by putting some irritating substance on it, changes begin, quickly, to occur in the circulation.