A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



From this we may gather that his general view of 

 medicine was not unlike that taken at the present time. 



Boerhaave's doctrines were arranged into a "sys- 

 tem" by Friedrich Hoffmann, of Halle (1660-1742), 

 this system having the merit of being simple and more 

 easily comprehended than many others. In this sys- 

 tem forces were considered inherent in matter, being 

 expressed as mechanical movements, and determined 

 by mass, number, and weight. Similarly, forces ex- 

 press themselves in the body by movement, contrac- 

 tion, and relaxation, etc., and life itself is movement, 

 " particularly movement of the heart." Life and death 

 are, therefore, mechanical phenomena, health is deter- 

 mined by regularly recurring movements, and disease 

 by irregularity of them. The body is simply a large hy- 

 draulic machine, controlled by ' ' the aether " or " sensitive 

 soul," and the chief centre of this soul lies in the medulla. 



In the practical application of medicines to diseases 

 Hoffman used simple remedies, frequently with happy 

 results, for whatever the medical man's theory may be 

 he seldom has the temerity to follow it out logically, 

 and use the remedies indicated by his theory to the 

 exclusion of long-established, although perhaps purely 

 empirical, remedies. Consequently, many vague theo- 

 rists have been excellent practitioners, and Hoffman 

 was one of these. Some of the remedies he intro- 

 duced are still in use, notably the spirits of ether, or 

 " Hoffman's anodyne." 



ANIMISTS, VITALISTS, AND ORGANICISTS 



Besides Hoffman's system of medicine, there were 

 numerous others during the eighteenth century, most 



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