in tliHi" rdhtion to the Seasons. 239 



Galen, but above all his followers, by a strange association 

 of this principle with the philosophy of Pythagoras, exag- 

 gerated both the sense and the employment of it. The prin- 

 ciple, consequently, was soon neglected, abandoned, forgotten ; 

 then resumed, appreciated, praised, or even exalted beyond 

 measure ; finally, during the last fifty years, the word has 

 scarcely been heard in our schools, academies, and books. 



Other sciences, as well as medicine, will assuredly furnish 

 examples of these vicissitudes. The human mind is thus 

 made ; it only avoids one defect by the contrary excess. Lu- 

 ther has said, with all the fire of his genius, after having 

 proved it, perhaps, by the extravagances of his character, — 

 " The human mind is like a drunk man on horseback ; when 

 you lift him to one side, he falls to the other." 



If the principle of the constitutions of the seasons, and of 

 the constitutions of diseases which correspond to them,has un- 

 dergone such alternatives, it is because it has not yet been 

 sufficiently elucidated, explained, developed ; it is because the 

 theory of this point of medical philosophy, hitherto imperfect, 

 has not been formulized with sufficient clearness, with suffi- 

 cient precision. 



In the woi'k at once of great length and high interest which 

 we have just examined, M. Fuster has had for his object to fill 

 up this lacuna ; he has wished to establish the relations which 

 really existed between the characters of each of the seasons, 

 and the nature of the common diseases of the year under the 

 climate of our country. He has thus proposed to trace equally 

 the meteorological and medical history of France. None has 

 hitherto vmdertaken a similar task. 



Physicians and meteorologists cannot study atmospheric 

 phenomena according to the same pi'ocess, the same princi- 

 ples, or with the same view. The meteorologist endeavours 

 to know the different atmospheric states in themselves, and 

 independently of all the modifications which they cause sub- 

 lunary beings to undergo. The physician, on the contrary, 

 while noting the peculiar characters of the seasons, wishes to 

 appreciate them in their action on the whole animal eco- 

 nomy. 



In meteorology, it has been often observed, that we can- 



