ACCOUNT 
Coincide with those of former pa- 
thologists and nosologists. The 
“reader must therefore prepare him- 
self for a considerable portion of 
surprize, at the view of assem. 
blages of which he has had no pre- 
vious idea: and at the appearance 
of many things in the catalogue of 
diseases, which he had reckoned 
mere symptoms, and even some 
that are natural aétions, and re. 
ducible to no received definition of 
diseasc. It would be easy for us 
to anticipate his surprize by the 
produétion of examples of this 
sort: but this would be atting un. 
fairly towards the truly ingenious 
author ; who could doubtless shew 
that a regular pursuit of his system 
Jed to analogies and associations, 
which no other train of reasoning 
could discover. 
Meantime, it is obvious that an 
arrangement of diseases from their 
proximate causes is a business so 
thoroughly scientific, that it must 
suppose a degree of perfection in 
our knowledge of the animal body 
in its healthy and diseased state, 
‘which elevates medicine from its 
humble rank of an experimental 
art, to that of a true and full 
: 
formed science. This state, indeed, 
is that in which every friend to 
‘its progress would wish to view it, 
and that which every man of ge. 
‘Mius will attempt to acquire for 
it:—bur the misfortune is, that 
such attempts, if premature or in, 
adequaic, interfere with the hum- 
bler efforts: of practical ufitiry, and 
tnisled by false views as much as 
they instruct by true conceprions. 
4t is not easy to Imagine an ar. 
fangement of diseases less appiica- 
ble to common purposes than that 
in the present work; nor is it 
probable thar ¢ven chose who re. 
ecive, and comprehend, the au. 
OF BOOKS. 
thor’s system of medical philoso. 
phy, will always agree with him 
in his pathological conclusions. 
We by no means intend, how. 
ever, to give a hasty decision ona 
performance which is the result of 
much thought and labour, and is- 
certainly replete with ingenuity. 
Theugh we do not think that ie 
wil mak= an era in medicine, yet 
it seems calculated to throw new 
light on many subjects, and con. 
siderably to improve the principles 
of medical reasoning. It like. 
wise contains much curious and 
entertaining facts, and many valu. 
able practical hints and direétions. 
With a marked propensity to try 
new expedients, in cases that call 
for extraordinary exertions, the 
author displays a~ thorough ac. 
guaintance with all the old rules ; 
nor does he, more than the late 
Dr. Cullen, seem over.solicitous to 
make his practice square with his 
theory, but freely allows its due 
preference to the former. Many 
suggestions are given in the modest 
form of queries; and though 
quickness of imagination may be 
tue most prominent character, yet 
it is noc emancipated from the 
rule of sober juigment. As a 
supplement to the rourth class of 
dissuses of a.sociation, he gives a 
sympathetic theory of fever, de. 
rived from the most intricate and 
recondite speculations belonging to 
the Zoonomia, which requires not 
less attention in the reader to fol. 
low, than ingenuity in the writer 
to have conceived. The distri. 
bution of the Materia Medica into 
seven Classes possesses as much no. 
velty as the rest of the work; it 
turns entitely on the supposed 
power of the several articles in ins 
fluencing the diff:rent motions of 
the system, 
Lil 2 Principles 
(518 
