John Hunter's A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation and Gunshot Wounds was 
published in 1794. Throughout the nineteenth century this was considered the 
most important study of inflammation and has been widely quoted since. After a 
section on the nature of blood and the circulatory system, in which he describes 
the vascular supply in detail, he passes on to an extensive survey of 
inflammation. This is based mainly on his wide clinical experience, including 
that as a military surgeon. He, however, supplements this with a number of 
experiments, some of which are classic. He bases his observations on the four 
cardinal signs of Celsus (redness, heat, swelling and pain). Inflammation is 
then divided into three main groups: adhesive, suppurative and ulcerative. He 
discusses the nature of pus and the formation and treatment of abscesses. He 
describes his experiments on the transplantation of tissues under the general 
heading of adhesive inflammation. This, he states, underlies the union of wounds 
and thus the union of tissues after transplantation. Although unaware of the 
role of infecting organisms as a cause of inflammation, he makes observations on 
inflammation in smallpox, venereal infections and tuberculosis. He relates these 
to his observations on inflammatory aspects of wound healing. Lister was 
particularly influenced by Hunter's observations in the development of 
antisepsis. As well as the local effect of inflammation, Hunter was concerned 
with the constitutional effects such as fever.