THEREOLOGT. 419 



at Rome, with Asclepiades of Bithynia, or Themison, his disciple ; 

 and founded its practice on the principle of either bracing or relaxing 

 the system. The eclectic school, supported by Aretaeus and Celsus, 

 professed to select and combine the excellences of the others : and 

 this is also called the pneumatic school, from its admitting the exist- 

 ence of a fifth element, air or spirit. By these different sects, the 

 practice of medicine was thrown into complete confusion, until Galen 

 of Pergamus appeared, and breaking through the restraints of system, 

 revived the principles of Hippocrates, with such arguments and im- 

 provements, as fixed a standard of practice, and gave him almost 

 absolute authority, as a physician, down to modern times. The Ara- 

 bians paid much attention to this branch of knowledge ; and Avicenna 

 wrote a work, entitled Canons of Medicine, chiefly a compilation 

 from Galen and the other classic writers, which was used, to some 

 extent, in the schools of Europe. 



The earliest medical school, of importance, in Christian Europe, 

 was that of Salerno, founded probably as early as A. D. 900, and 

 well established in 1143. It gave a new impulse to this science; 

 and aided in preserving the ancient medical classics. With the re- 

 vival of letters, the Greek writers came into general use ; until the 

 time of Paracelsus : who boasted of intercourse with spirits, and 

 professed to have discovered the elixir of life. Van Helmont adopted 

 the views of Paracelsus ; but Sylvius proposed a new theory, main- 

 taining that all animal action results from fermentation ; a theory 

 which was partly adopted by Sydenham in England. To these 

 mystical and chemical theories succeed that of the pneumaticians, 

 headed by Stahl ; who attributed the origin of all diseases to the 

 mind, considered as acting on the body, and ordinarily preserving the 

 fluids in a healthy state. On the other hand the mechanicians, as 

 they were called, commencing with Borelli and Bellini, regarded the 

 body as a complex hydraulic machine ; while Baglivi and Hoffman, 

 founders of the dynamic sect, attributed disease to either excessive 

 or deficient nervous and muscular action ; producing in the one case 

 spasms, in the other, atony or weakness. The errors of these differ- 

 ent theories, are now too evident to require our farther notice. 



Meanwhile, the knowledge of practical medicine was enlarged by 

 the introduction of new, and especially chemical remedies ; and by 

 the appearance of new diseases. The small-pox and the measles 

 were first described by the Arabians ; and the leprosy was spread in 

 Europe by the Crusades. An infirmary for the plague, was esta- 

 blished at Venice, in 1423. With the discovery of distant regions, 

 and the repetition of long voyages, the scurvy first made its appear- 

 ance : and a remarkable disease, called the sweating sickness, first 

 broke out among the English forces returning from France, in 1483. 

 The use of Peruvian or Jesuit's bark, in fevers, dates back to 1639 ; 

 and inoculation for the small-pox was introduced from Turkey into 

 England, by Lady Montague, in 1722. The milder practice of vac- 

 cination, was brought into vogue by the writings of Dr. Jenner in 

 1798. 



Among the more recent physicians who have promulged new 

 views of medicine, we may mention Dr. Cullen, whose classification 



