PHYSIOLOGY. 223 



these causes may be more considerable and peculiar in certain 

 persons than in others, and give an idiosyncrasy in that respect. 

 A torpor, or slower motion of the intestinal canal, is especially 

 to be suspected. 



We have thus endeavoured to mark out the various cases of 

 idiosyncrasy ; and although perhaps we may not have done it 

 completely, yet it is hoped enough has been said to show, that 

 in the employment of remedies a physician must be directed by 

 the consideration of idiosyncrasies as well as by the general 

 temperament. 



In the case of any person, therefore, occurring to a physician 

 for the first time as a patient, particular inquiry should be made 

 respecting the idiosyncrasies which may prevail in his constitu- 

 tion ; and if he himself should happen to have had no experience 

 of the effects of particular applications, the idiosyncrasies of his 

 parents should next be inquired after ; for idiosyncrasies are 

 very often hereditary. 



We have thus attempted to point out the various states of 

 the human constitution that may be found more constantly 

 different in different persons ; but it will be proper now to re- 

 mark, that these constitutions may be variously modified by 

 those circumstances of climate, diet, exercise, and the like, to 

 which men may be exposed in the course of life, and which it is 

 well known have a great power in changing the natural consti- 

 tution into one not only very different, but perhaps even op- 

 posite. It is therefore well known that a physician, in practis- 

 ing upon the human constitution, either for the preserving of 

 health or for curing diseases, must not only consider the tem- 

 peraments and idiosyncrasies which nature has originally given 

 to the constitution, but must also consider the accidental states 

 of it, which may have been produced by the circumstances and 

 manner of life. 



It is, however, not my business here either to explain those 

 various accidental states, or to assign their causes ; although it 

 might be proper enough to lay a foundation for that doctrine by 

 explaining the powers of custom and habit in general, as I for- 

 merly endeavoured to do in my lectures on the Materia Medica. 

 It does not, however, appear to me necessary to do it now, be- 



