402 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



jurious in practice than many of the additions 

 and views of those who are adverse to it. 



CCCCLXXIX. BROUSSAIS regards all he- 

 morrhagies as depending on an irritation of the 

 capillary vessels, consequently deems them ac- 

 tive, and endeavours to shew that debility does 

 not occasion the flow of blood. He says, if 

 debility produces hemorrhagy, that it ought to 

 occur in all cases of long continued weakness, in 

 the latter stages of life and disease ; that a para- 

 lytic limb ought to be subject to the affection, 

 which is never the case ; and still further, that 

 ecchymoses and petechias ought to characterize 

 as frequently diseases of manifest debility as 

 fevers of a typhoid nature. These arguments 

 are far from being conclusive; his favourite 

 theory, irritation, seems to obscure his reasoning 

 powers, or necessitates him to adapt to it a va- 

 riety of symptoms and conditions of the consti- 

 tution that cannot, except by force, be incorpo- 

 rated with the dangerous and exclusive views 

 implied in it. 



CCCCLXXX. From the observations of 

 BROUSSAIS, one would imagine that he looked up- 

 on debility as the same in its effects, how differ- 

 ent soever the causes that produce it. Debility 

 is sometimes occasioned by excessive depletion ; 

 by want of proper nourishment ; by inflamma- 

 tory and typhoid fevers ; by slow pulmonic dis- 

 organizations, and by the gloomy passions of the 



