INFLAMMATION. 616 INFLECTION. the propagation of bacteria. Local blood-letting may be (lesirablc. by means of the artificial kccli, cujiping, iM(.isiuns or searilicatidiis, or punctures. Pressure, by means of ^'auzc or ruh- l)er bandajies, is occasion.Tlly indicated. Inci- sions may be necessary to relieve tension, as in erysipelas, where deep cuts in the axis of the limb relieve pain. .Vstrinfn'nt and stimulating drugs may lie used, such as l>elladonna, silver nitrate, tannic acid, hydrastis, zinc salts, etc. Counter-irritation is clfeclual in certain cases, in which the cautery, caustics, vesicants, or rubefacients are used. Anion;; the constitutional apents used in com- bating inllamniation arc blnod-lettinp in certain cerebral or thoracic conditions; diet; drugs, in- cluding aconite, colchicum. belladonna, diuretics, iodide of potassium, opium, quinine, mercury, and jiurgatives. t>timulants. together with in- creased nourishment, may be demanded in ex- haustion or in chronic cases. The measures ap- propriate to eacli dise.Tse in which inllamnialorj- conditions arise arc mentioned undcT the appro- priate title. Consult: A. H. Smith. ■'Intermedi- ate Inflammatory Process," in Transactions of the Association of American Physicians (New York, 1900) ; Delafield and Prudden. Handbook of I'alholoiiicnl Anatomy and Ilisloloqi/ ( tltli ed.. New York] 1001). INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. .
old and inexact term, which was probably used indiscriminately as a name for enteritis, gastro- enteritis, colitis, appendicitis, and peritonitis, before some of these ailments witc dilVcrcntiated. INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. .
old anil uii~ii('ii1 ilic ti-nii. whirli li:i> been applied to both ccrelirilis and meningitis, and which shoulii be abandoned. Cerebritis. or inllammatory change of the brain-substance, may occur in vas- cular portions of the brain after injury. See Meningitis. INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. .■
unscientific term applied indi-^criiiiiiiatily
to those diseases of the kidneys one of the symp- toms of which is inllammntion. INFLAMMATION OF THE LTTNGS. See I'NKr.ll)MA. INFLECTION (I,at. inflexio. a bending, from inflcctcrc. to bond, from in, in + ficctere. to bend ) . The changes underg<ine by words to ile- notc their varying relations to other words. This forms one of the main divisions of philology (<|.v. ), and is itself subdivided into conjigation (q.v.) and declension (q.v.). It is a ilistinguish- ing mark of the Indo - Germanic (q.v.) and the Semitic languages (q.v.), as compared with other language-groups, such as the so-called ag- plutinative (q.v.), and the like. Broadly speak- ing, the line between inllectiim and agglutination is drawn by the individual intelligibility of the components of a word. While in many non-in- flecting languages each of the several formative parts has an independent meaning and existence, as Turkish sermck. 'to love.' sevdirmck, 'to cause to love,' serdirilmek. "to cause to be loved.' serdir- ilmemek, 'to cause not to be loved,' and so on, the components of an inflecting word no longer have any independent meaning, so that Latin nflit means 'he drives.' but neither ani- nor -t has any signification when used separately. This distinction, however, is a somewh.Tt arti- ficial and evanescent one, and should be accepted only as a basis for rough classification. To all intents and purposes many of the so-called ag- glutinative, incorporating (or polysynthetic) , or even analytic languages are as truly inflectional as those who.sc right to the term is undisput- ed. I'hc phrase 'inflectional' may, nevertheless, be used to denote the Semitic and Indo-ticrmanic groups if its somewhat conventional and inexact applicability je clearly understood. The inflci tions of the Semitic languages are relativi'l_ simple, and will be treated in detail under the title .Skmitic LANGiAtiK.s. In the Indo-CIcr- manic family, on the other hand, they arc quite complex, although far surpassed by many of the agglutinative and incorporating tongues. In general, the Vedic Sanskrit i -ce Sanskkit I.an- orAGE) seems to come nearest to the hypothetii-al pie-lndo (iermaiiic language-type. li li;i- two main declension systems, pronominal (see Pro NOIN") and nominal (see Xoi'N"). These were jirobably independent originally, although by the operation ol analogy (q.v.) the two systems of declension frequently became confused, some cases of the noun In-ing inflected pronominally (e.g. Sanskrit li; Greek ol, 'these,' Mkoi, but Sanskrit rrfc-js, "wolves'), and vice versa (as Oscan .Viiifa»nis, 'citizens of Nolo,' piis, 'who'j' but Latin qui, Sanskrit kc). The inflection i i the pre-Indo-Germanic noun and pronoun w:i- cvidentlv far richer even than the Vedic San skrit. for a comparison of the Indo-CIermanic lan- guages shows a number of t<'rminations for single cases — as, for instance, the instrumental singu- lar Avesta vchrka, Sanskrit crkc-nn. .Vrmi'iiiaii gailov. Old Church Slavic vlukomi, 'with a wolf.' It is entirely possible, even though merely a hypothesis, that the four modes of formation of this case just cited, which would be in pre-Indo Germanic 'li/'/fl, 'nl'li: '^iJqobhi, *u/f/omi (al-o 'ul/icbhi, 'nl(/eini). indicate an original difTer- cntiation of meaning; or, in other words, they were different cases. These cases, if this is true, later syncretized. a process for which the historic Indo-Germanic dialects furnish abun- dant analogies, as the Latin ablative, which unites the functions of the pre-lndo-Germaiiic locative, instrumental, and ablative, or the Greek dative, which comprises the primitive da- tive, locative, and instrumental. The inflectional terminations are. in general, ultimately the same for any given case throughout the vari- ous declensions. The apparent divergencies are usually due. except where nouns are in- flected pronominally or pronouns nominally, to the phonetic laws of sound-combination. (See Phonetics.) The conjugation of the verb, like- wise, was originally far more complex than it is now. The tense system, although the future was originally lacking, was rich, especially in aorists. The Vedic Sanskrit had three main varieties, the simple, reduplicating, and s- aori-^ts, of which the first had two subdivisions, and the third had four. Here again it is quite ]iossi))le that these seven aorists originally had distinc- tive meanings, although even as early as the Veda they were, so far as now known, mutually equiva- lent. The moods were more numerous, the verb having the indicative, subjunctive, optative, im- perative, and )>erhaps n mild imperative calle(l the injunctive (in form the augment less aoriet. and biter the augnientless imperfect). As in- flection was twofold, so conjugation had a double system, primary and secondary. The primary
