ON NOSOLOGY. 459 



subjects of which I have a knowledge, I stand a better chance 

 of escaping many errors than those who have grasped at every 

 thing, trusting not only to their own knowledge, but more com- 

 monly to that of others. Upon this footing they have commit- 

 ted many faults, taking in many diseases of which we have as 

 yet very imperfect accounts such as those of distant foreign 

 countries and admitting certain trifling aberrations from the 

 standard of human perfection which are not diseases. What 

 shall we think of VogePs genus Seline, ' Macula alba in ungue?" 

 Linnaeus makes me smile when, at the end of his Nosology, 

 after the definition of many trifling spots of the skin, and at 

 least of Ephelis the brown spots which appear on the face in 

 delicate complexions in summer there follows immediately 



' Heu mihi, tot mortes homing quot membra, malisque 

 Tot sumus infecti, Mors ut Medicina putetur/ 



It appears, therefore, gentlemen, that the very good general 

 rule of comprehending in the system every species of disease, 

 may be pushed to excess ; and this is the first error of Nosolo- 

 gists. 



The second error is that by which chiefly the genera and 

 species have been multiplied, viz. enumerating every single 

 symptom as a distinct and separate disease. In the system of 

 Sauvages and others, Pandiculatio, Rigor, Sternutatio, Oscedo, 

 Anxietas, Lassitude, Stupor, Algor, Ardor, and many similar 

 symptoms, form distinct and separate genera, although it is cer- 

 tain that they are neither genera nor species, that they never are 

 the principal or leading symptoms of any disease with which we 

 are acquainted, but are always combined with others. Errors 

 of this kind may be useful in leading to pathological discussions 

 of the symptoms, but they confound the Nosology. 



A third error of our Nosologists is, their enumerating differ- 

 ent degrees of the same genus as totally different, forgetting the 

 rule that ' majus et minus non variat speciem. 1 Thus they 

 have marked Carus, Cataphora, &c. as different diseases, al- 

 though they are only different degrees of apoplexy. Many 

 similar instances of this you will find alluded to in my Synopsis, 

 where I have comprehended several genera in one. 



A fourth error is, enumerating what are obviously only spe- 



2i<2 



