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DEFINITION OF TERMS. 



Bronzingy the art of varnishing wood, 

 plaster, Ivory, &c. so as to give them the 

 color of bronze. There are two sorts of 

 composition used for this purpose, the 

 red and the yellow. 



The latter is made of the finest copper 

 dust and to the former is added, a small 

 quantity of red ochre, well pulverized, 

 both are applied with varnish, and the 

 work is dried over a chafing dish as soon 

 as bronzed. 



Brunonian system. The system of 

 medicine discovered by the late Dr. Brown 

 and explained at large in his elements of 

 medicine. Brunonian system, account 

 of. The human body particularly the 

 system of solids it consists of, it is a form 

 of living matter, whose characteristics are 

 sensation and motion. The capability of 

 being affected b}^ external powers, is 

 termed excitability; the agents stimuli, or 

 exciting powers; the result excitement. 

 Without this property, excitability, the 

 body would be dead inert matter, by this 

 property it becomes living matter; by this 

 property, called into action by the excit- 

 ing powers, it becomes a living system. 



While the stimuli acts on the excita- 

 bility with a sufficient degree of power, 

 then is the pleasant sensation of Jiealth; 

 when they raise the excitement above this 

 point, or depress it below it, disease takes 

 place; when the stimuli cease to act, or the 

 system to feel their power, death ensues. 



Excitability is a property of living mat- 

 ter, peculiar and inherent, but it is a pro- 

 perty which Dr. Brown did not pretend 

 to explain. 



He left it as Sir Isaac Newton did his 

 attraction as a property not to be investi- 

 gated. Of this energy or power there is 

 assigned to every living system, at the 

 commencement of life, a certain quantity 

 or proportion; but its quantity diflfers in 

 each, and in the same body it is found to 

 change; for the excitability, according to 

 circumstances, may be' abundant, increas- 

 ed, accumulated, superfluous, exhausted 

 consumed', Sj-c. The 5^/wiZf/i or exciting 

 powers are of two classes, external and in- 

 ternal. The external stimuli are heat, 

 light, sound, air, and motion; food, drink, 

 medicines,and whatever else is taken into 

 the hody, not excepting poisons and 

 contagions. The internal are the functions 

 of the body, the blood, the secretion?, 



muscular exertions, and finally the pow- 

 ers of the mind; as sensatiofi, passion, and 

 thought. Excitement is life; the natural 

 movements of the machine, and the func- 

 tions resulting from these, as sensation, 

 reflection, and voluntary motion, as they 

 immediately flow from the exciting pow- 

 ers, are vigorous when they are strong, 

 languid when they are weak, and cease 

 when they are taken away entirely. Thus 

 our body is continually moved by exter- 

 nal agents, and life is a forced state, our 

 weak frame has an unceasing tendency to 

 dissolution, which is opposed only by the 

 incessant application of exciting powers, 

 which are the sources of life, and which 

 being partially or completely withdrawn 

 are immediately followed by "disease or 

 death. It is also a principle of this doc- 

 trine, that all stimuli by acting on the ex- 

 citability exhaust it. Thus the stimuli of 

 food, air, motion, passion, and thought, 

 have supported the body through the 

 labours of the day: they have supported 

 the functions b}^ acting on the excitability; 

 in the evening it is exhausted by their 

 continued operation, they have no longer 

 the same power; the functions fail; we sink 

 into rest, and continue in sleep, unaflfected 

 by the stimuli, renewing by sleep that ex- 

 citability which had been exhausted by 

 the labours or the pleasures of the day ; 

 we rise with restored excitability; we feel 

 a new power of excitement in every ob- 

 ject around us; we are refreshed in the 

 morning, and languid at night, and our 

 whole life is an alternation of motion and 

 rest, of action and sleep, of apatliy and 

 pleasure, of wasting our excitability by 

 day in labour or enjoyment, and of re- 

 cruiting it by night by the abstraction of 

 all stimulant powers. 



The same philosophy extends to the 

 duration of life; in childhood excitability 

 is abundant in quantity as being little 

 exhausted; but it is low in power, be- 

 cause the tender stamina and accumulated 

 excitability of children can neither suflTer, 

 nor support high excitement. Their ex- 

 citability is so abundant that they are easily 

 supported by weak diet and low exciting 

 powers, and therefore most of their dis- 

 eases, are diseases of weakness. In youth 

 and manhood, the excitability is yet en- 

 tire, the stamina are strong, the powerful 

 stimuli are applied, and high passions pre- 



