AMERICAN EDITION. xxi 



which, as no parallel is known to have exiiled in ancient times, it can 

 only be found in the hiftory of modern quackery, he took upon him- 

 felf the appellation of ldl$Hx%hg 9 or the conqueror of phyficians. 



After Th ess alus the feci began to decline and dwindle, and al- 

 though Soranus, Julian, and Moschion retarded for a while its 

 downfall, yet it was totally abforbed and loft in the Galenic Doclrines 

 which followed. 



Thus, from an examination of the Methodic Syjlem, it is evident the 

 explanation of every thing in the animal economy is attempted upon 



PRINCIPLES OF MECHANISM only. 



The firft notice - of any thing elfe requifite to give life, arid regulate 

 its functions, feems to have occurred to Hippocrates, the cotempo- 

 rary of Democritus and Leucippus. The to tvooftw of this faga- 

 cious obferver, as the interpretation of the word imports, obvioufly 

 means an exciting power in animals : and the effects of animation re- 

 fulting from this, imperfectly known, and badly explained, doubtlefs 

 give rife, according to the opinion and judgment of the different wri- 

 ters, to the Nature of Sydenham,* the Aura Vitalis of Van Hel- 

 mont,-]- the Vis nature Medicatrix of Gaubius,^: the Anima Medica 

 of Stahl and Nichols, $ and the learned and curious treatife, enti- 

 tled Impetum Faciens, of Kaauw Boerhaave.jj 



And here it is worthy of remark, that from Hippocrates to 

 Brown, all writers entertain the opinion of a principle or power with- 

 in, exifting as the caufe of life, as appears by the active fignification of 

 all their terms ; whereas the 'idea of the Bruuonians is, that the or- 

 ganized animal folid poffeffes no internal energy, and would always re- 

 main inactive, unlefs excited by ftimuli from without ; they therefore 

 fpeak of the vital capacity in the paj/tve voice, as only fufceptible «f 

 being acted upon. 



Herman Boerhaave, in his account of the difeafes of a lax and 

 of a rigid fibre, feems a grain to relapfe into the mechanical confideration 

 of thele things ; but Haller, by his numerous and luminous experi- 

 ments on fenfibility and irritability, led the way to a right mode of 

 purfuing and underftanding fuch enquiries. 



The attention of Hoffman had been turned to the confideration of 

 the nervous fyftem, as influencing difeafes, more particular than any 

 other perfon ; and from his writings were probably taken the hints 

 which terminated in Cullen's doctrine of Excitement and Collnpfe, 

 in his Phyiiological Tract ;^[ enlarged afterwards, and applied to prac- 

 tice, 



* Opera Paffim. 

 _ f Equidem fciant Spiritum effe aliquem illud impevum faciens Hippocrates, 

 vitc-e clavum manu fua tenens (Ort. Medicin. p. 724.) 



\ Who quotes Hippocrates for the idea (Sect. 649.) couched under the term 

 of avlonpxlcta. 



\ Animam effe Guberna»ricem, &c. &c. Oratio de anima Medica. paffim. 



|j Lug. Batav. Luchtmans, 1745. (Chap. 7.) 



f Inftitutes of Medicine, \ 126 to 135. " From what has been now faid of 

 the excitement and collapfe of the brain, it will appear that we fuppofe life, as far 

 as it is corporeal, to confift in the excitement of the nervous fyftem, and efpecially 

 of the brain, which unites the different parts, and forms them into a whole.' 1 <- 136. 



