Medicine, 265 



the Boerhaavian doctrine, occupies only a secon- 

 dary degree of importance in the animal economy. 

 Dr. CuLLEN supposed it to be evident that the ner- 

 vous power, in the whole as well as in the several 

 parts of the nervous system, and particularly in 

 the brain, which unites the several parts, and 

 forms them into a whole, is at different times in 

 different degrees of mobility and force. To these 

 different states he applies the terms of excitement 

 and collapse. To that state in which the mobility 

 and force are sufficient for the ordinary exercise of 

 the functions, or where these states are any way 

 preternaturally increased, he gives the name of 

 excitement; and to that state in which the mobility 

 and force are not sui^cient for the ordinary exercise 

 of the functions, or when they are diminished 

 from the state in which they had been before, he 

 gives the name of collapse J' 



Dr, Cullen's opinions concerning the nature of 

 fever have excited much attention and controversy 

 in the medical world. He delivers an account of 

 them in the following words : '' Upon the whole, 

 our doctrine of fever is explicitly this. The re- 

 mote causes are certain sedative powers applied to 

 the nervous system, which, diminishing the ener- 

 gy of the brain, thereby produce a debility in the 

 whole of the functions, and particularly in the ac- 

 tion of the extreme vessels. Sucii, how^ever, is, 

 at the same time, the nature of the animal econo- 

 my, that this debility proves an indirect stimulus 

 to the sanguiferous system ; whence, by the inter- 

 vention of the cold stage, and spasm connected 

 w^itli it, the action of the heart and larger arteries 

 is increased, and continues so till it has had the 

 effect of restoring the energy of the brain, of ex- 

 tending this energy to the extreme vessels, of re- 



f See \\\% ImtUutts of Medicine^ § 1 36 to 13^. 



