134 Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin, M. D. 



Now the generic character should certainly run throuo-h 

 all the species, and what should be the discriminating- charac- 

 ter is, hy Cullcn, here brought into the generic character. 



After this specimen, and never corrected, though his 

 Nosology went through five editions, the philosophic 

 world may form a tolerable opinion of Dr. CuUen's want of 

 judgement, or rather knowledge, in this department of 

 science. 



In his definition of Nephritis, he introduces " testiculi 

 ejusdcm lateris retractio aut dolor;" which symptom, as 

 only applicable to one sex, should not have come into the 

 generic character, but only been made as a remark. 



In the clasjs of fevers comes Odontalgia, (the tooth- 

 ache,) defined as arising from a caries in the tooth, though 

 he finishes his work by genus " CLI. Caries, ossis exulce- 

 ratio." 



In his class Exanthemata, he thus badly defines Va- 

 riola (small-pox) : 



" Synocha contagiosa aim vomitu, et ex epigastri-o prcs- 

 so, dolore, 



'* Terlio die inciplt, et qiiinto finitur eruptio papularum 

 phlcgmonodearuni, quae, spatio octo dierum, in suppuratio- 

 jiem, et in crustas demum abeunt, saepe cicatrices depres- 

 sas, sive foveolas in cute, relinquentes. 



" Species sunt, 



" I. Variola {discreta) pustulis paucis, discretis, circum- 

 scriptione circularibus, turgidis; feb^e, eruptione facta, pror 

 tinus cessante. 



" II, Variola {covfluens) pustulis numerosis^confluenti- 

 bus, circumscriptione irregularibus, flaccidis, parum eleva- 

 tis ; fcbrc post eruptionem perstante." 



" Surely, as the infection," to use the language of Dr. 

 Darwin, '^ from the distinct small -pox, produces also the 

 confluent kind, and vice versdy it would seem more analogous 

 to lotanical arrangement, which Nosologists prq/ew to imi- 

 Vite, to call the distinct and covjiuent small-pox, rather va- 

 rieties than "pccies." 



He is still more defective in his definition of Varicella 

 (chicken-pox) ; 



^' Synocha. 



