The  biography  of  these  products  comprises  much  of  the  most  im-
portant part  of  the  pathology  of  inflammation  ;  and  if  it  were  required
to  point  out  what,  since  Hunter's  time,  has  contributed  most  to  the
progress  of  general  pathology,  one  could  scarcely  hesitate  to  name  the
full  appreciation  of  the  fact,  that  they  and  other  primary  products  of
disease  have  an  independent  life,  and  are  of  their  own  nature  capable
of  appropriate  development,  degeneration,  and  disease.  We  may  regard
this  as  one  of  the  best  achievements  of  the  observations  which  Schleiden
and  Schwann  began  to  generalise  ;  for,  till  it  was  clearly  apprehended,
the  idea  of  a  part  being  organisable  meant  scarcely  more  than  that  it
admitted  of  being  organised  by  the  forces  of  the  parts  around  it ;  that
it  could  be  built  up  by  the  arteries,  and  modelled  by  the  absorbents,  as
a  material  plastic,  yet  passive,  in  the  hands  of  workmen.  Hence  was
derived  the  erroneous  direction  of  inquiries,   which  sought  for  blood-


HOW  THE  TERM  IS  USED.  261

vessels  as  the  essential  characters  of  organic  life  in  a  part ;  and  for
their  varieties  of  size,  and  number,  and  arrangement,  as  the  measures
of  the  ability  and  method  of  development.
