AMERICAN EDITION. xxvii 



2. Sthenic diatheSis ; as in plcurify, other forms of Synocha, &c, 



3. Indirect debility ; as in old age, intoxication, fatigue, Sec. 



4. Direct debiKty added to indirect ; as in gout very often, and in 

 many difeafes of advanced life. 



5. Indirect debility added to direct ; as in over-feeding a familhed 

 perfon, &c. in moft difeafes of infants and young perlbns. 



Let now the candid reader compare this view with the opinions of 

 the old Methodists, and fay, whether it be a mere revival of the 

 practice of Thjemison and Thessalus ? Surely they who have af- 

 Serted it was, can never be fupp6fed to have given themfelves the trou> 

 ble to examine. 



Yet, with all this novelty about it, Brown's doctrine wants pre- 

 cision. It proceeds not far enough beyond general principles, which, by 

 reafon of their abftract or fpeculative nature, have not been found cloSely 

 enough applicable to the fubjects of pathology and phyfiology. He takes 

 for granted, for in fiance, that the nervous Syftem is always one and 

 the fame excitable thing. He fays fcarcely any thing accurate 0:1 the 

 different qualities of the blood and circulating fluids, and of the feci e- 

 tions ; and gives nothing very minute concerning the mighty influence 

 of the refpiratory and digeftive proceffes upon the animal ceconomy. 

 He pafTes over entirely the chemical compofition of our food and 

 drink, of our inhalations and excretion?, of the gafes we breathe and 

 the remedies we fwallow : in fhort, he' has left not a fentence on the 

 compofition or the nature of bone, mufcle, veffel, fat, lymph, or 

 gluten, nor how varioufly thefe are affected by difeafe, nor in what 

 their healthy differs from their morbid flate, nor by what means the 

 alterations they undergo are brought about. 



Thefe, and other omiffions and defects in the Brunonian System, 

 called for amendment ; and this was to be begun by attending to the 

 varying condition of the living folid, and the concomitant flate of the 

 fluids. 



The eftablifhment of the new nomenclature of chemiftry in France, 

 m 1787? may be confidered as forming a new epoch in fcience. Since 

 the publication of that invaluable performance, language has been 

 adapted with greater accuracy to the expreflion of ideas, and philo- 

 sophical investigation conducted with Superior advantage and fuccefs. 

 Lavoisier, in his Elements of Chemiftry, has attempted the expla- 

 nation of the putrefactive, as well as the fermentative procefs in the 

 organized forms of animals and of plants, upon the modern principles ; 

 and, in a natural and convincing manner, has proceeded a great way 

 beyond any one who undertook the explanation before. Spallan- 

 zani indeed, in his Experiments on the Concoction of Food in 

 the Stomach, and Crawford, in his Application of the Principles of 

 Combuflion to the Function of the Lungs in breathing, had givejj ex- 

 cellent Specimens oS this mode of reafoning on phyfiological fubjects. 

 Great progreSs has been made Since in detecting' the nature and prop- 

 erties of the atmofphere, the gafes and aeriform fluids ; and the right 

 •knowledge of thefe, derived from experiment and observation, has fur- 

 nil lied 



