Sect, in.] Theory and Practice of Physic. 3i2.'3 



Of the writers who adopt the opinions of Stahl, 

 111 a greater or less de^^ree, Nichols and Gaubius 

 may be considered as two of those who deserve tlie 

 highest consideration *. Tlie consequences result- 



ticc. His work De Principio Vitali Jloi/iinis, published in 1773, 

 and his Nova Doctrine dc rivutiontbu.s NuturiT JIumanw, j)ubhsht'J 

 ki 1774, both deserve to be commended as indications ot'acutcness 

 and ingenuity. 



* In an elegant prelection by Dr. Nichols, which he published 

 under the title of Oratio dc Anhnu Mtdica, we find the following 

 visionary excesses ot Staltlianism. According to him, the '^oul at first 

 forms the body, and governs it ever afterwards. He ascribes it to the 

 prudence of the soul, that the stinai is not jKTfc»eted in males, till 

 tlie strength and vigour of the system are prepared for generation, 

 and he sees her sagacity in the slow and gradual eruption of the 

 small-pox, thereby dividing the force of the disease and greatly 

 lessening the danger. After violent pain or exhaustion by fatigue, 

 tiie soul hides herself in sleep, in order to recruit the body or to 

 r-ectify any disorder ; hence the inclination to sleep after child-birth ; 

 hence also the frequent sleeping of infants, whose anima is so cn- 

 "•rossed with attention to the vital motions as to mind little else. 

 When too much distracted and perplexed with external things, she 

 cTften neglects her internal duties ; and hence health is so much 

 impaired by fear, grief, love, and other violent passions. He also 

 accuses the soul of occasional fits of caprice and ill-humour, by 

 w hich she is led to disregard her office, and indulge herself in 

 freaks of petulance and perverseness. In fevers, the sudden failing 

 of the strength and pulse ought to be regarded, he tells us, us 

 signs of the soul's abandoniug the body in despair, and intending 

 soon to relinquish it. Nay, he sometimes imputes to her cow- 

 ardice and folly in sufiering the body to sink under diseases by no 

 means deadly in their own nature; in falling into undue akirui and 

 trepidation, thereby becoming unfit to discharge her office, and 

 being often precipitated into mischief and injury; and in deserting 

 her post in a moment of peril, when, were she always wiiie enough 

 to neglect things of inferior moment, and to attend solely to the 

 preservation of the body, she might not only prevent diseases, >r, 

 tar at leask as they proceed from internal causes, but might protract 

 the life of man to an indefinite period, it may be to a thousand 

 ■^.ears l^Vide Oratio de Anima Mcdicn, pa-^sim. 



