xx INTRODUCTION TO THE 



" with tne organization, finding them fit for the purpofts of fight and 

 " hearing, makes ufe of them accordingly. 



" Senfation, proceeding from the arrangement and texture of parti- 

 u cles> is to be afcribed to their peculiar magnitude, fhape, combina- 

 " tion, &c. fo that inftead of being an original property of matter, it 

 " is. in fact, only an occa,fional quality. Death is the privation of 

 " fenfation, in confequence of the feparation of the fentient principle 

 " from the body ; and this femient principle, when a man dies, is de- 

 " compounded into its fimple atoms, lofes its fenfitive powers, and goes 

 " into other forms and combinations, The foul, in this refpect, re- 

 " fembling the eye, which is no longer capable of performing its func- 

 " tionsthan the connection of its organized texture with the body lads/ 5 



What ASCLEPIADES did, was to apply the principles of the Epi- 

 curean Philofophy to medicine, and this he did with much ingenuity 

 and acutenefs. Building upon that hypothecs, he fuppofed the hu- 

 man body compofed of Epicurus's ultimate atoms, which, by their 

 figure, proximity, and arrangement, enabled it to perform its functions ; 

 and in a particular manner, that health confided in the fymmetry and 

 permeability of certain paffages through the firm parts, which he calk 

 ed pores ; and the doling up, or obtlruction of thefe, condituted dif- 

 eafe. He imagined the fluids to be formed of particles, varying in 

 figure and fize. and thus making all the varieties of them from the 

 thickeft blood to the moil attenuated animal fpirits And when thefe 

 fluids moved freely through their pores, the body was found ; but when 

 they were too narrow, fo as to produce dagnations, or fo oblique as not 

 to be readily pafTable. then indifipofition enfued. 



Such were the leading principles of ASCLEPIADES, and he had ma- 

 ny followers, among whom THEMISON of LAODICEA was the mod 

 eminent. Ke rejected mod of the fubtle and laboured reafonings of 

 bis mailer, and, declaring fuch minute invedigations were ufelefs, af- 

 firmed, without defcending to particulars, and burthening hirnfelf with- 

 details, a phyfician need only make himfelf acquainted with the gen- 

 eral principles of difeafes. Thefe, he faid, all belonged to two clafTes. 

 i. Thofe proceeding from laxity ; and, 2. Such as were caufed by 

 Jlriclure. All that was necelTary to be done, therefore, was to afcer- 

 tain to which clafs any given difeafe belonged ; and then, if to the 

 former, to prefcribe allringsnt ; if to the latter, relaxing remedies. 



The regular and fyftematic plan which THEMISON and his numer- 

 ous followers adopted in their practice, differing very widely from the 

 conjectural and uncertain mode of other phyficians, caufed them to be 

 called METHODISTS ; and they are to this day known in hiftory by 

 the name of the METHODIC SECT. While THEMISON was reflecting 

 upon his fyftem, and endeavouring to advance it to maturity, he died, 

 and the unfinilhed work was taken up and completed by his follower 

 THESSALUS. He Jived in the time of NERO ; and having reje&ed, 

 as frivolous, all the opinions of his predecefibra, he declaimed, with 

 vehemence and fury, againft the phyficians of all ages, and offered to 

 inftruct a beginner in the art of medicine in the fhort duration of fix 

 months. And then, with a degree of arrogance and impudence, af 



which, 



