AMERICAN EDITION. xxv 



cafes, where almoft implicit faith and idolatrous reverence had been 

 given to certain authors, he has freely attacked and refuted their 

 opinions. He apologizes for the plainnefs of ftile and manner with 

 which the performance is written, especially, fince to avoid the conta- 

 gion of opinion, he had read no medical book for five whole years, 

 and had fcarcely confulted the monuments of ancient elegance for 

 twenty. 



There is a great deal of animation and force in his argument againft 

 plethora, from the ninety-fourth to the ninety-eighth fection, which 

 he concludes with this challenge : " Si fit quod ad hoc refpondeas, 

 " refponde Stahli aut jube Junckerum."* 



In the hundred and fourth fection he oppofes, in decided terms, the 

 tonic or aitringent operation of cold, particularly as caufing conftriction 

 of the fkin ; and repeats the fame in feveral places, (J 180 — 182.) de- 

 nying that it acts as a ftimulant. 



In his reafoning againft lentor in the fluids as a caufe of difeafe, he 

 breaks out into the following fpirited exclamation t " Quam infelix 

 <* ea pathologia eft ! cujus perpetuum principium, quod univerfis 

 " comprehends partibus convenire, univerfas illuftrare, et explicare 

 " debet, ne uni quidem convenit, unam illuftrat, unam explicat, con- 

 (l tra omnibus repugnat, omnes obfeurat, et confundit ;" and, reject- 

 ing the pathology of the fluids, declares, that cool water, pure air, 

 wine, and Peruvian bark refift putrefaction in no other way than by 

 keeping up excitement. 



In his remarks upon fpafm, he endeavours to mew that it cannot be 

 a caufe of difeafe, either of the fthenic or afthenic kind, and ought, of 

 courfe, to be rejected from both, as fhould alfo what has been called 

 the reaction of the fyjlem, in fever. In the courfe of his animated ar- 

 gument, he afks if, toward the end of the eighteenth century, " quis, 

 " opinionem meram, nulla rationis, nulla veri vel tenuifiima umbra com- 

 " mendatam, folidiflimis argumentis, item ipfi tuendae adhibitis corn-* 

 ** pertam falfam, poft vanam omni falfae logicse genere defenfionem, 

 " pro re vera et certa oblatum iri crederet V 



He is every where oppofed to that claflification and arrangement of 

 difeafes which has fo much obtained of late, and clofes this work with 

 the words, " Nofologia delenda." 



He publifhed a fecond edition in the year 1784, and added thereto 

 the afthenic clafs of difeafes. Taught by experience and obfer- 

 vation, in the different forms of the gout and, aft h ma, of the benefit 

 of ftimulant remedies, he had no hefitation to coniider them among the 

 effects of weaknefs ; as were likewife fevers ftrictly fo called (febres) 

 both intermittent and continued, and all the kinds of hemorrhagy, &c. 

 In fhort, the confederation of the difeafes not belonging to the fthen- 

 ic clafs, convinced him they mult be referred to the afthenic ; fuch 

 were all fpafmodic or convulfive ailments, dyfpepfia, and other the like 

 affections of the alimentary canal, and the greater part of the maladies 

 of children. 



Vol. I. d In 



* Note Juncker was the difciple of Si<*h! and the expofitor of his do&rine-i. 



