THIRD LECTURE. 185 



disease. In fact, a disease of this kind is never 

 preceded by predisposition ; it does not originate 

 from increased or diminished general excitement, 

 but from a body which may be regarded as alto- 

 getlier foreign, and which may be either in the sto- 

 mach or intestinal tube. Bvoiviiy in his medical 

 writings, says nothing of the gastric affections, nor 

 does he name verminous fevers, though several 

 physicians of the first rank have written of them. 



If, however, what we have said of fevers called 

 verminous, be compared with the principles of 

 Brown's doctrine, it will be seen that this philo- 

 sophical pljysician, when speaking of diseases aris- 

 ing from poisons, f Elements of Medicme, vol. i. 

 §. LXXVII,^ he informs us that these diseases 

 should often be regarded as local, because the poi- 

 son (and we will say a worm,) by mechanically at- 

 tacking the stomach and intestines, organs endow- 

 ed with great excitability, may produce from sym- 

 pathy, an irritation through the whole system ; but 

 as neither the sthenic nor asthenic diathesis is there- 

 by produced, it cannot be considered any thing else 

 than a local malady ; this view of the case is con- 

 firmed by the treatment, which consists merely in 

 expelling the poison, or the worm, from the body. 



If, on the contrary, worms in the first passages 

 are preceded or accompanied by febrile commo- 

 tion, originating in reality from the irregular ex- 

 citement of the system, and is evidently occasioned 

 by a power directly or indirectly debilitating, no 



physician can deny that the development of worm*? 

 Si 



