one sense, may be said to be doing nothing; for this step is intended merely to prevent farther injury. When this is continued for a short time, we may suppose that the part has begun to act a little more in a natural way, which is attended, as was formerly explained[69], with a correspondent increase of injury. We then increase the heat, but very slowly, and taking a long time to bring the part near its natural temperature, being regulated by the progress which the part itself is making; for the application of heat may be considered in two points of view, in this case; first, as the removal of the injuring cause; and, secondly, as a stimulus to action. If, then, the part do not recover itself, in proportion to the removal of the hurtful cause, but remain stationary, it is evident that a farther removal is at present useless, and the stimulus which is consequently given is highly dangerous. By these means, then, we proceed slowly toward recovery, and keep up the ground which we have gained. [69] See the preliminary dissertation. If, however, the action of the part have been sunk very low, then recovery is impossible, there being little or no energy, and so little action, that it cannot increase itself toward the natural state. In this case, our endeavours must fail, and will even kill the part sooner than if we had let it alone; for the least increase of action destroys the life of the part, which may, in this case, be compared to a dying taper, which gives one brighter flash before it becomes for ever extinguished. If, on the other hand, the action have not originally been sunk so low as to make the process toward death continue progressively, but the remedies have been applied too quickly, or, from any cause, have failed to produce this effect, then the action becomes inflammatory. The pain becomes of a burning kind, there is a feeling of pulsation, and the part becomes redder, or livid, whereas, before, it was bluish; from the stagnation of the blood, there was no feeling of pulsation, or arterial motion, and the sensation was that of a painful cold and weight. The inflammatio debilis is now induced, and the danger is great, but still there is a possibility of recovery, which is exactly in proportion to the degree of previous diminution of action, and to the rapidity with which the subsequent inflammatory action was induced, and the degree to which it is raised; or, in other words, the danger is proportioned to the disparity betwixt the action and the power.