25 S Medicine. 



The next medical theorist whose system de- 

 mands notice, is George Ernest STAHLjProfessof 

 of Medicine at Halle, in Saxony, who was so illus- 

 triously distinguished for his improvements in Che-^ 

 mistry, mentioned in a former part of this work. 

 For a long time this was the prevailing system in 

 Germany; and the traces af it may be discerned 

 in many modern writings, which still maintain 

 a high degree of authority. 



The fundamental principle of this system is that 

 the rational soul of man presides over, and governs 

 the w^hole economy of his body both in health and 

 sickness. In all ages physicians have supposed the 

 existence of a power or faculty in the animal eco- 

 nomy, by which it is enabled to resist injuries, and 

 to correct and remove the diseases to which it is 

 exposed. This power, by many, of the ancients, 

 was vaguely termed nature), and under the denomi- 

 nation of vis conser^mtrix et medicatrix naturce^ has 

 been long celebrated in the schools of medicine. 



Stahl explicitly founds his system on the prin- 

 ciple, that this power of nature^ so much spoken 

 of, is nothing else than a faculty of the rational 

 soul.^ On many occasions he imagines the soul 

 to act independently of the state of the body; and 

 that, without any physical necessity arising from a 

 particular state, the soul, merely in consequence of 

 its intelligence, perceiving the application of 

 noxious powers, or the approach of disease from 

 any cause, immediately excites such motions in the 

 body as are suited to obviate the hurtful or perni- 



% It appears that physicians are by no means unanimous in their mode 

 of understanding the Stahlian theory. In proof of this the following 

 quotation is offered from a writer of high reputation." Stahl has been 

 reproached for having ascribed too much to the soul; but they who have 

 done this, either have never read his works, or did not understand them. 

 The soul, according to Stahl, is a being purely material; or rather he 

 admitted no soul; only the vital principle of an organized body." ZiM« 

 MERMAN en E^cperiena^ vol, i. p. 98. 



