INTRODUCTORY LECTURES. 



ten's Commentary, page 96.) ; and the many examples given 

 by Boerhaave, of a glutinosum appearing in the human body,' 

 (Apli. 75.) are all of them nothing more than instances of col- 

 lections or concretions found out of the course of the circu- 

 lation. 



If, then, we consider the imperfection of Dr. Boerhaave^s doc- 

 trine with respect to the state and various condition of the ani- 

 mal fluids ; and if, at the same time, we reflect how frequently 

 he and his followers have employed the supposition of an acri- 

 mony or lentor of the fluids, as causes of disease, and for direct- 

 ing the practice ; we must, as I apprehend, be satisfied, that 

 his system is not only deficient and incomplete, but fallacious 

 and apt to mislead. Although it cannot be denied, that the 

 fluids of the human body suffer various morbid changes ; and 

 that, upon these, diseases may primarily depend ; yet I must 

 beg leave to maintain, that the nature of these changes is seldom 

 understood, and more seldom still is it known when they have 

 taken place ; that our reasonings concerning them have been, 

 for the most part, purely hypothetical ; have therefore contri- 

 buted nothing to improve, and have often misled the practice 

 of physic. In this, particularly, they have been hurtful, that 

 they have withdrawn our attention from, and prevented our 

 study of the motions of the animal system, upon the state of 

 which the phenomena of diseases do more certainly and gen- 

 erally depend. Whoever, then, shall consider the almost total 

 neglect of the state of the moving powers of the animal body, 

 and the prevalence of an hypothetical humoral pathology, so 

 conspicuous in every part of the Boerhaavian system, must be 

 convinced of its very great defects, and perceive the necessity of 

 attempting one more correct. 



After giving this general view, it is not requisite to enter into 

 particulars : but, I believe, there are very few pages of his 

 aphorisms in which there does not occur some error or defect ; 

 although, perhaps, not to be imputed to the fault of Boerhaave 

 so much as to this, that since his time a great collection of new 

 facts has been acquired by observation and experiment. This, 

 indeed, affords the best and most solid reason for attempting a 

 new system : for, when many new facts have been acquired, it 

 becomes requisite that these should be incorporated into a sys- 



