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“Account of Books for 1796. 
y 
Locnomia ; or the Laas of Organic 
Life. Vol. Il. ato. By Erasmus 
Darwin, M.D. F.R.S. 1796. 
AVING in our volume for 
1794, given an account of 
the first volume of this ingenious 
work, it might-pezhaps be suflicient 
for us barely to announce to our 
readers the appearance of the 
second volume of a work, the 
former part of which has already 
excited the attention of most of 
those who pursue the study of 
medicine as a branch of science, 
and interest themselves in all its 
ingenious novelties; and indeed, 
we mean to do little more than 
give such a general idea of its con- 
tents as may serve to afford in- 
formation of what may be expected 
from it. <A full analysis ef the 
work would be dry ; a minute cri- 
ticism would occupy too many of 
our’ pages with a topic addressed 
only to professional men; and par- 
tial criticisms would be unfair and 
impertinent, where the whole is 
concatenated by a system, only to 
be properly comprehended in an 
universal view. 
The volume consists of part 2d 
and 3d of the Zoonomia. ‘Lhe 2d 
contains ‘a catalogue of diseases 
distributed according to their prox- 
tmate _eavses, with their subse. 
quent orders, genera, and species, 
and with their methods of cure.’ 
The 3d comprises ‘ the article of 
the Materia Medica, with an ac- 
count of the operation: of medi- 
cine.’ Thus the volume is properly 
a practical system of physic, found- 
ed on the doétrines of the animal 
economy laid down in.the pre- 
ceding volume. The classification 
of diseases follows that of the fa- 
culties or powers of the sensorium, 
established in the first part of Zoo- 
nomia. As all diseases are affirm. 
ed to originate in the exuberance, 
deficiency, or retrograde action of 
these faculties; and to consist in 
disordered motions of the fibres, 
the proximate cffeét of the exer- 
tions of these disordered faculties ; 
four natural classes of diseases are 
derived trom the four powers of 
the sensorium; which the author 
denaminates those of irritation, of 
sensation, of volition, and of as. 
sociation, The orders under cach 
of these classes are formed from 
the circumstances of increase, di- 
minution, and retrogradation of 
the actions ; the genera are derived 
from the proximate effect ; the spe. 
cies from the locality of the discas¢ 
in the system, 
It is not:to be expefted that a 
classification, founded on such pe. 
culiar and zbstraét notions, should 
© (eoincidé 
