xxiv INTRODUCTION TO THE 



nieafles and fcarlet fever, as well as in fmall-pox, the general indication 

 of cure is to diminim the inflammatory diatheiis, without the leaft re- 

 gard to the particular nature of the contagion, or the ilage of erup- 

 tion ; but thefe are carefully to be dhlmguiihed from the plague, and 

 other eruptive difeafes of a totally oppoiite character : and that with- 

 out attending to the peculiarity of the refpiration, or the precife na- 

 ture of the morbific caufe, the certain things to be attended to are, 

 How far the difeafed condition deviates from health ; and in what de- 

 gree the living body approximates towards death. The exanthema- 

 tons fymptoms in the two claffes of complaints, varying in each, their 

 form only, and not their nature* 



Having proceeded thus far, he declares that difeafes of the fame 

 type or clafs are to be relieved, or cured, by the fame mode of treat- 

 ment ; and that the volumes of diagnoftics, and the endlefs diftinc- 

 tiona of nofology, in ipite of the authority of even Baglivi and Syd- 

 enham, when oppofed to clear reafon and matter of fact, ought to be 

 disregarded. He expreifes his appreheniions too, left the infinite dif- 

 cinclion of difeafes mould lead to a mode of practice equally diverii- 

 fied. and have a very baneful effect upon materia medica and pre- 

 scriptions. * 



In his remarks upon predifpufition to bad health, he avers that no 

 perfon ever fuddenly became lick, but that gradually a predifpoktion 

 was created by the agency of the exciting powers, and but of this pre- 

 difpofition grew the difeafe. Of this he gives examples in the phlogif- 

 tic exanthemata, wherein he fays, a high degree of excitement pro- 

 duces the difeafe, a lower predifpolition, and a dill lower health : the 

 means, therefore, conducive to the latter of thefe he thinks fo iimple, 

 that the ufe of the common nofology is intirely fuperfeded. 



Proceeding upon this plan, he diftinguifhes local from univerfal 

 ailments ; both of which are confufedly claffcd together, in the differ- 

 ent nofological arrangements. 



This led him to an examination of hemorrhagy, which, if attended 

 in the beginning with phlogiftic diatheiis, he thought always became 

 eventually afthenic, and in this enquiry it was that he was induced to 

 call in queftion the exiftence of plethora, as a caufe of hemorrhagy, and 

 to reject: altogether the notion of a vis mtdicatrix naturae as an agent 

 in the animal iyflem. 



This lirfl edition of the Elementa is an unfinished work, and com- 

 prehends the details of his doctrine no farther than thejlbtnk form of 

 difeafes. Among thefe he there ranks hemorrhagy, efpecially menor- 

 rhagia, haemorrhois, epiftaxis, and apoplexy ; an arrangement /vhich 

 he afterward c< nfidered wrong, and altered accordingly in the fol- 

 lowing editions, by placing them all in the afthenic clafs. 



Such, he tells us, was the train of ideas palling in his mind as he 

 reflecred upon the animal economy ; a ton thefe confederations 



idge himfelf warranted in undettal n explanation of the 



fubjeft, different in many refpe&s from any done before him. 



, throughout the whole, he nc\<:v defcends beneath his 

 dignity to animadvert upon particular perfotu ; though in certain 



cafes, 



