xxv! iiNTRODUCTION TO THE 



In this performance too, he contends again/I the advocates for fed- 

 aiives. Opium he declares, has a ftimulant operation ; colds or ca- 

 tarrhs are produced by heat fucceeding to cold, and not vice verfa ; 

 and extends his laws of animation to the vegetable creation. 



In inert;, he concluded there was in the medullary nervous matter, 

 and mufcular folid of living bodies, which have been generally called 

 the nervous fyftem, a property by which they could be affected by 

 outward agents, as well as by their own functions, in fuch a way as to 

 produce the phenomena peculiar to the living flate. This capacity of 

 being acted upon is termed excitability , and the agents are ail denom- 

 inated Jlimalants, while the effect produced by the operation of ftimu- 

 lants upon excitability is called excitement. 



Excitement i^ terminated in two ways I. By the exhauftion of 

 excitability, through the violence or continuance of ftimulus, which 

 is called indireft debility. 2. By the accumulation of excitability, 

 through deficient ftirnulus, which is termed direft debility. Between 

 the two extremes of indirect and direct debility are experienced both 

 health and difeafes of the fthenic kind, or thofe febrile complaints (py- 

 rexise,) accompanied with what has been called phlogiftic diatbefis, 

 wherein > though the excitement confiderably exceeds the healthy rate, 

 iHil it does not reach the limits of indirect debility. 



Stimuli lofe their efficacy after long and frequent application ; but 

 even then the excitability, exhaufted in relation to one ftimulus, is ca- 

 pable of being acted upon by another. 



Therefore, the wafte of excitability, after exhauftion of one ftimu- 

 lus after another, is very hard to be repaired, by reafon of the difficul- 

 ty of accefs to frefh ftimuli to work upon the languifhing excitability ; 

 which, by being applied flrong at firft* and gradually weakened after- 

 wards, anfwers the purpofe ; and alfo the fupe? abundant excitabili- 

 ty left by fubduction of one ftimulus after another, produces fuch an 

 excitable condition of the fyflem, that much nicety is requifite to wear 

 it gradually away by application of very weak ftimuli at firft, and by 

 degrees ftronger and ftronger until the accuftomed ones can be com- 

 fortably borne. According to the Brunonian Doctrine difeafes ap- 

 pear under various modifications, as exhibited in the table below. 



Thus they may be, 



1. Univerfal, fuch as primarily affect the whole confiitution, as fe- 

 vers, &c. 



2. Local, where, from limited morbid affection, a particular part 

 labours, without difordering the entire habit; as trifling wounds, 

 phlegmons. &c. 



3 Loco-uriiverfal, when, from a local affection, the whole body is 

 eventually brought into a di&afed condition ; as in lues originat- 

 ing from chancre, fnpall-pox from inoculation, &c 

 4. Univerfo local ; as if, after a general ailment any particular part 

 or organ is affected in a fecondary way ; as the eruptions of exan- 

 thematous pyrexks, fyphilitic blotches, &c. 

 And each of thefe forms of difeafes muft confift either in, 

 Diredt debility ; as in fcurvy, hunger, cold, c, 



2. Sihenic 



