34 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



cies of Sauvages, but have attempted myself to give the specific 

 characters, and I have given a full and particular definition of 

 each. 



" The different species were formerly not known by physi- 

 cians. Dr. Boerhaave, for instance, had no idea of the Angina 

 maligna, the gangrenous sore throat, although the disease had 

 existed one hundred and fifty years before his time : he would 

 not have been in this condition if some person like Sauvages 

 had at that time gathered the hints of different authors on 

 the subject. I know very well that when I was in practice 

 about thirty years ago, and the Cynanche maligna first ap- 

 peared in this country, many practitioners mistook it for the 

 common angina ; and since that time the Cynanche tonsillaris 

 has frequently, to the great anxiety of parents, and prejudice of 

 infants, been considered as of the gangrenous kind, and treated as 

 such. Physicians are still disputing whether the Cynanche 

 gangrenosa and stridula (the Croup) are to be distinguished ; and 

 one of the latest writers on the subject has not done it. This I 

 think a sufficient proof of the necessity of labouring in this man- 

 ner in giving accurate characters and definitions. It is abso- 

 lutely necessary to study nosology ; for the knowledge of re- 

 medies will be insignificant till we know how to distinguish 

 diseases. I think I am safe when I am protected by the au- 

 thority of Sydenham, and other practitioners in this, that we do 

 not fail so often from the want of proper remedies as from not 

 exactly knowing the disease. I shall, therefore, think it a prin- 

 cipal part to instruct you in the distinguishing diseases ; and I 

 think it nowhere more necessary than in the present subject of 

 cynanche, of which the different species have been confounded 

 with one another. 1 ' 



SECT. I. OF THE CYNANCHE TONSILLARIS. 



CCCI. This is an inflammation of the mucous membrane of 

 the fauces, affecting especially that congeries of mucous follicles 

 which forms the tonsils, and spreading from thence along the 

 velum and uvula, so as frequently to affect every part of the 

 mucous membrane. 



CCCI I. The disease appears by some tumour, sometimes 

 considerable, and by a redness of the parts ; is attended with a 



