AMERICAN EDITION. xxiii 



years ago, when, in that very place where fpafm y reaSton, and vis med- 

 icatrix natura were flourifhing in full vigour, under the afiiduous culti- 

 vation of Cullen, they were nipped and cropped in the bloflbm, and 

 nearly eradicated as noxious, by the improving hand of Brown. 

 From the intimate acquaintance which Brown, or Bruno, as he 

 called himfelf, had with the publifhed writings, and probably with the 

 private opinions of Cullen ; from his academic habits, his erudition 

 and knowledge of every thing palling at the Univerfity of Edinburgh, 

 he mull have had great opportunities, as well of learning all that was 

 printed in phyfic, as of Undying the defects, and detecting the weak- 

 nefs of that profeffor's do&rines. He told the writer of this preface, 

 that he ventured one day to talk to Cullen on the incomprehenfible 

 ideas of atony and fpafm exifting in the fame veflels of the body at 

 the fame time ; and thereby provoked him to manifeft ligns of impa- 

 tience and difpleafure. A coolnefs took place immediately, which 

 increafed at laft, by fucceffive and mutual aggravations, to rooted 

 averfion and deep oppofition. And to this irritated (late of Brown's 

 mind, indignant with the fenfe of unbecoming treatment, is to be af- 

 cribed no fmall portion of that rcfolution and energy with which he 

 laboured out a Syftem of Medical Philofophy, which, though not free 

 from errors, borrows, however, none from Cullen. 



On the publication and contents of the firfc edition of the Elementa 

 Medicinae of this author I fhall be a little particular, an account of 

 the fcarcity of the work, and of the gratification it may afford to an 

 enquiring mind to learn the progrefs of ufeful difcoveries. 



It was publifhed in 1780, and was dedicated to Sir John Elliot ; 

 but this dedication was withheld from the fecond edition. After 

 {rating his twenty years labour in learning and teaching phyfic, he 

 obferves, it was not until the fourth luftrum that fome dawning of 

 light broke in upon him. 



The opinion that in the phlegmafice of nofologifts, local affection 

 was not the caufe of pyrexia, but, on the contrary, a fymptom confe- 

 quent upon a previous general excitement of the whole conftitution, 

 appears to have been early adopted by him ; and from his own perfon- 

 al fufferings in eryfipelas, cynanche tonfiilaris, catarrh, and fynocha, 

 and from his perufal of whatever had been written by Morgagni, 

 Trill er, and other candid authors on thefe fubjects, and on pneu- 

 monia, he was confident his idea was right. 



He, at this time, propofed the doctrine of cold predifpoflng the 

 body to be operated upon in a powerful manner, and to a morbid de- 

 gree, by fubfequent heat ; which, indeed, may be regarded as one of 

 the rnoft important practical truths in medicine. 



He calls in queftion the propriety of forming opinions of the nature 

 of difeafes by their fymptoms merely, and boldly adopts the method 

 of judging from the " laedentia and juvantia." 



He offers well-founded criticifm on nosological arrangement, and 

 (hews wherein, through want of diflinctiou between univerfal and local 

 difeafes, a number of thefe had been claffed wrong. 



On examining the phlogifijc exanthemata he contends, that in 



meafles 



