Medicine, 249 



fected by Lord Bacon, deserves likewise to be par- 

 ticularly mentioned. His method of philosophizing 

 exhibited the futility of the numberless hypotheses 

 which are found in the system of Galen, and ex- 

 cited a disposition to observe facts and make expe- 

 riments. 



At the beginning of the seventeenth century the 

 contest between the Galenical and Chemical 

 physicians was carried on with the utmost ani- 

 mosity and indecorum. The influence of the 

 writings of Galileo, aided by the discovery of the 

 circulation of the blood, introduced mathematical 

 reasoning into the doctrines of medicine. The 

 progress made about this time in the knowledge 

 of the organic structure of animals, which was 

 greatly facilitated by an acquaintance w^ith the 

 circulation of the blood, had extended the ap- 

 plication of mechanical philosophy, in order to 

 explain the phenomena of the animal economy. 

 The agency of the nerves or moving powers of ani- 

 mals was, at that time, so little understood, that 

 physicians universally, whether Galenists, Chemists, 

 or Mathematicians, considered the state and condi- 

 tion of the fluids as the cause of diseases, and the 

 medium of the operation of remedies. Hence arose 

 the Humoral Pathology^ which then predominated 

 in every system of opinions, however diversified in 

 other respects. While the follow^ers of Galem 

 were daily losing ground from the circumstances, 

 which have just been stated, the Chemists gained 

 some accession of strength from the doctrines of 

 the humoral pathology. Chemical reasoning 

 was readily adopted to explain the various acri- 

 monies which were supposed to infest the circu- 

 Jating mass, and thereby to give origin to diseases. 

 On this ground the use of stimulating, cordial and 

 sudorific remedies became fashionable throughout 

 Europe, in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- 



