AMERICAN EDITION. iii 



h, as no parallel is known to have exifted in ancient times, it can 

 only be found in the hiftory of modern quackery, he took upon him- 

 klf the appellation of I2gM*ji1pK, or the conqueror of phyficians. 



After THESSALUS the feel began to decline and dwindle, and al- 

 though SORANUS, JULIAN, and MOSCHION retarded for a while its 

 downfal, yet it was totally abforbed and loft in the Galenic Doftrines 

 which followed. 



Thus, from an examination of the Methodic Syjlem, it is evident the 

 explanation of every thing in the animal economy is attempted upon 



PRINCIPLES Of MECHANISM Only- 



The firft notice of any thing elfe requifite to give life, and regulate 

 its functions, feems to have occurred to HIPPOCRATES, the cotempo- 

 rary of D*.MOCRITUS and LEUCIPPUS. There tvoffpuv of this faga- 

 cious obferver, as the interpretation of the word imports, obvioufly 

 means an exciting power in animals : and the effects of animation re- 

 fulting from this, imperfectly known, and badly explained, doubtlefs 

 give rife according to the opinion and judgment of the different wri- 

 ters, to the Nature of SvotNHAM,* the Aura Vitalis of VAN HEL- 

 MONT,f the Vis naturae Medicatrix of GAUBIUS } ;(: the Anlma Medica 

 of STAHL and NIC HOLS. $ and the learned and curious treatife, enti- 

 tled Impetum Faciens, of KAAUW BOERHAAVE || 



And here it is worthy of remark; that from HIPPOCRATES to 

 BROWN, all writers entertain the opinion of a principle or power <u>hh- 

 in, exifting as the caufe of life, a appears by the active fignification of 

 all their terms ; whereas the idea of the Brunonians is, that the or- 

 ganized animal folid pofTefles no internal energy, and would always re- 

 main inactive, unlefs excited by itimuli from without ; they therefore 

 fpeak of the vital capacity in the pa/five voice, as only fufceptible of 

 being acted upon. 



HERMAN BOERHAAVE, in his account of the difeafes of a lax and 

 of a rigid fibre, feems again to relapfe into the mechanical confidcration 

 of thefe things ; but HALLER, by his numerous and luminous experi- 

 ments on fenlibi'ity and irritability, led the way to a right mode of 

 purfuing and underhand ing fuch inquiries. 



The attention of HOFFMAN had been turned to the confideration of 

 the nervous fyftem, as influencing difeafes, more particular than any 

 other perfon ; and from his writings were probably taken the hints 

 which terminated in CULLEN'S doctrine of Excitement and Cot/apfe, 

 in his Phyfiological Tract ;^f enlarged afterwards, and applied to prac- 

 tice, 



* Opera Paflim. 



f Equidem fciant Spiritum effe aliquem illud imfetwa faciens Hippocrates, vit?e 

 davum manu fua tenens (Ort. Medicin.p. 724.) 



t Who quotes HIPPOCRATES for the idea (Sect. 649.) couched under the term 

 *if av1oKpa.1itoc. 



Animam effe Gubernatricem, &c. &c. Oratio de anima Medica pafliin. 



|| Lug. Batav. JLutchmans, 1745. (Chap. 2.) 



*[ Inftitutes of Medicine, 126 to 135. " From what has been now faid of 

 the excitement and collapfe of the brain, it will appear that we fuppofe life, as far 

 as it is corporeal, to confift in the excitement of the nervous fyftem, and efpecially^ 

 of the brain, which unites the different parts, and forms them into a whole 5 .'" 

 13.6. 



