340 APPENDIX. 



some particular complaints, which it is foreign to the purpose 



to discuss here: but, in general, the treatment of diseases 



seems more simple than is usually imagined. As the 



secondary and outward symptoms of diseases are infinitely 



numerous and dissimilar, both as to their local effects on the 



body, and as to their influence on the mind, arising from 



varieties of constitution and other circumstances, the only 



rational and simple mode of treating them seems to be, to 



find out, if possible, whether, among the multiform symptoms, 



there be not some circumstances common to all diseases, and 



which are the distinguishing marks of disorder in the system. 



The ancients seem to have pursued and acted upon this simple 



mode of investigation : and perceiving a manifestly disordered 



state of the digestive viscera to accompany the more obscure 



irregularity in the nervous actions, had recourse to remedies 



which had known effects on those organs ; and they treated 



successfully the more apparent mental diseases, by rectifying 



the state of the viscera. The manner, the mind, and nervous 



system, and the digestive organs, mutually aggravate each 



other's disorder; and the insufficiency of local remedies in 



general, for the cure of local diseases, has been ably illustrated 



by physiologists of late ; which illustration may be regarded 



as the only important progressive step the science of medicine 



has taken since the time of Hippocrates. These opinions 



seem spreading on the Continent, as may be learnt by the 



works of the French physicians, Halle, Cabanis, Pinel, and 



others. Dr. James Hamilton, Dr. Curry, Dr. Cheyne, Dr. 



Wilson Phillip, and some others, have, in this country, 



illustrated the connexion between the unhealthy state of 



these organs and diseases in general : and M. Abernetliy, 



the perusal of whose surgical works first induced me to 



consider these subjects accurately, has shown the great sue- 



