282 Medicine. 



natural history is so greatly indebted ; by Rodol- 

 PHUS Augustus Vogel, of Goettingen; by John 

 Baptist Sagar, of Iglavv, in Moravia^ by Dr, 

 CuLLEN, of Edinburgh; by Dr. Macbride, of 

 Dubhn; and by Dr. Darwin, in his Zoonomia; 

 besides some others of inferior note. For some 

 time past, the influence of Nosology has been evi- 

 dently on the decline. The ever-varying forms 

 of diseases are so dissimilar to the steady and fixed 

 character of the objects belonging to the three 

 kingdoms of nature, that it is difficult to account 

 for the confidence and zeal v^ith which this sub- 

 ject has been cultivated by some distinguished 

 names. It cannot, however, be denied, that noso- 

 logical inquiries have produced many good effects; 

 they doubtless promote the discrimination of dis- 

 eases ; and many of the questions they involve are 

 extremely interesting to the practical physician. 

 An undue reliance upon nosology, and allowing 

 it to substitute names for realities, seem to have 

 produced the mischief which has thrown it into 

 discredit. 



The cool regimen in fevers constitutes one of the 

 most universally acknowledged improvements in 

 the practice of physic of the eighteenth century. 

 A revolution on this point was begun by the new 

 and interesting doctrines which the sagacity of 

 Sydenham had enabled him to develope towards 

 the latter part of the preceding age. Every day's 

 additional experience gave some new confirmation 

 of this important practice. A further acquaint- 

 ance with the diseases of hot climates, where the 

 pleasantness as well as the efficacy of coolness in 

 fevers had overcome the opposition both of theory 

 and prejudice, gave a deep blow to the alexiphar- 

 mic and heating system. The good effects of 

 coolness in the small-pox, and more especially in 

 the improved stages of the inoculation of that dis- 



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