The condition and qualities of an ulcer, do not, in every instance, depend upon causes which are entirely local, but frequently are connected with some general state, or mode of action, of the system. General weakness must, for example, influence the performance of any action in a particular part; and, therefore, an ulcer in those who are infirm, and exhausted, cannot readily perform the necessary healthy action, or proceed quickly toward a cure; nor is it easy, in these circumstances, by any local applications, to communicate the necessary action, and the correspondent power, which shall enable the part to heal. In the same way, there are some people so irritable, that an ulcer shall very readily assume the overacting state, which can only be removed by such remedies as act on the general system. Besides those which may be considered as simple conditions, there are many other actions, which are peculiar and unnatural, which influence the ulcer, or in which ulcers often appear as symptoms. These ulcers are specific, and must be afterwards considered. As the state of the system has a considerable influence on the condition of an ulcer, so also has the state of the ulcerative action an effect on the constitution. A healthy ulcer, unless very extensive, has little effect on the system; but, unhealthy ulcers, or those which are very large, although the action may be sufficiently perfect, produce a greater or less degree of the general diseased formative action, or what is called hectic. From the principles which have already been laid down, it may easily be understood how an unhealthy ulcer should induce hectic. When considering the doctrine of suppuration, the effects of this on the constitution, or the production of a general diseased formative action were attended to. It was also mentioned, when considering ulceration, that the ulcerative action had a tendency to produce similar effects; and this it does, with a certainty proportioned, cæteris paribus, to the unhealthy condition of the action, or its approximation to the suppurative action; for the less perfect that the ulcerative action is, the more nearly does it resemble the suppurative one.