Sect. III.] llieory and Practice of Pin/sic. 341 



the heart arid arteries, aceumulate sensorial power 

 faster, when impeded, than those which are sub- 

 jected only to intermitted action. M'hen stimuli 

 which are usually applied to any particular j^art of 

 the system, are withdrawn, an accimiulation of sen- 

 sorial power takes place there, proportioned to tli(; 

 subduction of those stimuli and to tlic state of that 

 part. 



The exertion of any part of the system, Dr. 

 Darwin believes, may be proper, or greater, or 

 smaller than it ought to be. All diseases, there- 

 fore, originate in the exuberance, deficiency, or 

 retrograde action, of the faculties of the sensorium, 

 as their proximate cause ; and consist in the dis- 

 ordered motions of the fibres of the body, as the 

 proximate effect of the exertions of those disorder- 

 ed faculties. Hence, in conformity vv itii the prin- 

 ciples before mentioned, health, inflannnation, and 

 the various degrees of exhaustion of sensorial 

 power, or torpor from accumulation of sensorial 

 power, will be found to ensue. 



After premising these general principles, and 

 deducing from them many important doctrines 

 concerning the sound and diseased states of the 

 animal system. Dr. Darwin proceeds to offer his 

 theory of fever, which, whatever may have been 

 the remote cause of it, he supposes to consist in the 

 increase or diminution of direct or reverse associated 

 viotions. It commences in a particular organ, oc- 

 cupies one or more disordered tribes or trains ot 

 associate motions, and is more or less compli- 

 cated according to the number of such disordered 

 tribes. 



Dr. Darwin's doctrine of fever may thcrelbre be 



