412 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



general system. It is even surprising, that Boerhaave himself, 

 though he lived near forty years after he had first formed his 

 system, had hardly in all that time made any corrections of it 

 or additions to it : the following is the most remarkable : In 

 aphorism 755, the words ' forte et nervosi, tarn cerebri quam 

 cerebelli cordi destinati inertia,' did not appear in any edition 

 before the fourth ; and what a difference of system this points 

 at every physician must perceive. 



' When I first applied to the study of physic, I learned only 

 the system of Boerhaave ; and even when I came to take a 

 professor's chair in this university, I found that system here in 

 its entire and full force ; and as I believe it still subsists in cre- 

 dit elsewhere, and that no other system of reputation has been 

 yet offered to the world, I think it necessary for me to point out 

 particularly the imperfections and deficiencies of the Boerhaa- 

 vian system, in order to shew the propriety and necessity of at- 

 tempting a new one. To execute this, however, so fully as 

 I might, would lead me into a detail that can hardly be 

 admitted of here ; and I hope it is not necessary, as I think 

 that every intelligent person, who has acquired any tolerable 

 knowledge of the present state of our science, must, in many 

 instances, perceive its imperfections. I shall therefore touch 

 only upon the great lines of this system ; and from the re- 

 marks I am to offer, I trust that both the mistakes and de- 

 ficiencies which run through the whole of his works will ap- 

 pear. 



Dr. Boerhaave's treatise of the diseases of the simple solid 

 has the appearance of being very clear and consistent, and was 

 certainly considered by him as a fundamental doctrine : but, in 

 my apprehension, it is neither correct, nor extensively applica- 

 ble. Not to mention the useless, and perhaps erroneous notion 

 of the composition of earth and gluten ; nor his mistake con- 

 cerning the structure of compound membranes ; nor his inatten- 

 tion to the state of the cellular texture all of them circum- 

 stances which render his doctrine imperfect I shall insist only 

 upon the whole being very little applicable to the explaining the 

 phenomena of health or sickness. The laxity or rigidity of the 

 simple solid does indeed take place at the different periods of 

 life, and may perhaps, upon other occasions, occur as the cause 



