Sect. III.] Theory and Practice of Physic. ^l\\ 



times fatal; the second is medicinal and salntarv. 

 By thtsc views of the nature of fever, he sujj|)osfs, 

 the physician ought to be directed in counteracting 

 the morbid actions, and in assisting tiie sanative 

 process of nature*. 



The general pathological doctrines of lIofTmann 

 undoubtedly contain a great deal of truth, and form 

 a distinguished aera in the history of medical the- 

 ory. Tiiough his opinions on the sul)ject of fever, 

 however impro\'ed by a succeeding theorist, must 

 be supposed to be rapidly falling into disrepute; 

 still they evince deep and Just views of the animal 

 economy, and much observation of the nature ^nd 

 phenomena of diseases. 



The originality of HolTmann's scheme of patJKj- 

 iogy has been brought into question; and nobody 

 can doubt that he received many important hints 

 from preceding writers. Van Helmont seems to have 

 been the first who turned his attention to the nervous 

 system with any discernment. Some, indeed, have 

 gone so far as to pronounce him the author of the 

 spasmodic theory of f ever ; but whatever intimations 

 he may be supposed to have given of febrile spasm 

 in different parts of his huge indigested \vork, they 

 are surely too crude and indistinct to be considered 

 in the light of a theory of fever. Dr. Willis, in the 

 latter part of the seventeenth centuiy, had also laid 

 some foundation for this doctrine, in his Palhologia 

 Cerebri ct Nervorum; and Baglivi, in tlie begin- 

 ning of the eighteenth, had improved it still further 

 in his Specimen dc Fibra Motrici el Morl)osaf. 



•^- IIofTmann. Oft Omn. vol. i, torn, ii, p. 10. 

 j Dr. I'cniai- ot >r;inrlu'strr, in thcprefacto hi> .Mtuficul Ilis- 

 rc'/ii's ami R»jhxliom: iiuikcs the following rcinaik : " Tijc avsci- 



