on the Living System. 3' 



^fhe humoral pathology, \vhich had for a 

 long space of tirhe occupied the schools of 

 medicine, had no sooner been called in question 

 than a variety of opponents arose in every 

 quarter against it; the new opinions being 

 clothed in professional authority and Enforced 

 by- the learning and genius of several private 

 tethers, the tide of opinion flowed in a con- 

 trary direction, and it became the fashion to. 

 account for all, or most of the deviations fiom a? 

 state of health in the animal body, from some 

 primary aheration in the condition of the solids. 

 In many points the advocates^ for the new doc- 

 trines were notwithstanding at issue with each 

 other, and the memorable contest betwixt 

 Haller and Whytt, respecting the origin and 

 nature of irritability, opened to the physiologist 

 new sources of enquiry and laid new foun- 

 dations for future improvement. The agency 

 of the nervous system, which was still necessary 

 for the explanation of most of the phoenomena 

 upon the theory of diseased solids, began at 

 length to be exploded by the advocates of 

 another yet more reftned and simplified, which 

 the creative genius of John Brown u^ered 

 jnto the. schools of physic. 



This doctrine rejecting the explanation of 

 diseases upon partial and confined theories, at- 

 A 2 



