ON NOSOLOGY. 463 



introduced one single new name of a disease, but have adopt- 

 ed names which had been employed by one or other of the 

 systematics before. I found it absolutely necessary indeed to 

 make a choice, and upon many occasions I have not taken the 

 name which was formerly the most common ; and in other in- 

 stances, where I have adopted names, I am not quite satisfied 

 that they are the most proper ; but rather than occasion any 

 sort of confusion by new names, I have avoided every thing of 

 that kind. 



Now, after this introduction to Nosology in general, I return 

 to consider the Synopsis, and shall add a very few words explan- 

 atory of my plan. The purpose of the whole is to fix the characters 

 of diseases with somewhat more precision than has been hitherto 

 done. As I thought it necessary for you to make a constant com- 

 parison, I have every where, under the title of the genus which I 

 have chosen, given you an opportunity of comparing the systems 

 of my predecessors, Sauvages, Vogel, Linnaeus^and Sagar, by 

 constantly referring to their corresponding places. I have far- 

 ther referred to the most considerable systems of these days to 

 Boerhaave, to Hoffmann, and to Juncker, in place of Stahl ; as 

 also to the best monographists where the single subjects are 

 more particularly and usefully treated. 



You must begin by studying what we call genera ; but you 

 must not stop there : it is absolutely necessary to proceed to 

 the study of species, and even to that of varieties ; and I 

 have therefore thought it proper to attempt giving you some 

 assistance in this particular. I wished indeed to have as- 

 signed and characterized the several species, as I have done un- 

 der the genus Cynanche, according to my own view of the mat- 

 ter ; but I found that, owing to various insuperable difficulties, 

 particularly as I had no other assistance but the Nosology of 

 Sauvages, this was impossible. I have attempted, however, to 

 make my arrangement more convenient and useful than that of 

 Sauvages. He has gathered a great many particulars relating 

 to species and varieties of diseases ; he seems to have marked 

 down whatever he found in his reading, so that his work has 

 more the appearance of a common-place book, afterwards to be 

 arranged by the author, than of any thing else : there is every 





