410 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



indebted to Dr. Hoffmann for putting us into the proper train of 

 investigation ; and it every day appears, that physicians per- 

 ceive the necessity of entering more and more into this inquiry. 

 It was this, I think, which engaged Dr. Kaaw Boerhaave to 

 publish his work, entitled Impetum faciens; as well as Dr. 

 Gaubius to give the Pathology of the Solidum vivum. Even 

 the Baron Van Swieten has, upon the same view, thought it ne- 

 cessary, in at least one particular, to make a very considerable 

 change in the doctrine of his master, as he has done in his 

 Commentary upon the 755th Aphorism. Dr. Haller has ad- 

 vanced this part of science very much by his experiments on 

 irritability and sensibility. In these, and in many other in- 

 stances of some progress in the study of the affections of the 

 Nervous System, (particularly in the writings of Mr. Barthez of 

 Montpellier,) we must perceive how much we are indebted to Dr. 

 Hoffmann for his so properly beginning it. The subject, how- 

 ever, is difficult : the laws of the Nervous System, in the vari- 

 ous circumstances of the animal economy, are by no means 

 ascertained ; and, from want of attention and observation with 

 the view to a system on this subject, the business appears to 

 many as an inexplicable mystery. There is no wonder, there- 

 fore, that on such a difficult subject, Dr. Hoffmann's system 

 was imperfect and incorrect, and has had less influence on the 

 writings and practice of physicians since his time than might 

 have been expected. He himself has not applied his funda- 

 mental doctrine so extensively as he might have done ; and he 

 has everywhere intermixed an Humoral Pathology, as incorrect 

 and hypothetical as any other. Though he differed from his 

 colleague, Dr Stahl, in the fundamental doctrines of his system, 

 it is but too evident that he was very much infected with the 

 Stahlian doctrines of Plethora and Cacochymy, as may be ob- 

 served throughout the whole course of his work ; and particu- 

 larly in his chapter, * de morborum generatione ex nimia san- 

 guinis quantitate et humorum impuritate.' 



But it is needless for me to dwell any longer upon the system 

 of Hoffmann : and I am next to offer some remarks on the sys- 

 tem of Dr. Boerhaave, the cotemporary of both the other syste- 

 matics, and who, over all Europe, and especially in this part of 

 the world, gained higher reputation than either of the others. 



