LINN^US. 311 



6. ProcidenticB. Swellings arising from dislocation of 

 soft parts ; as rupture, prolapsus, phymosis. 



7. Deformationes. Distortions ; as rigidity of joints, 

 humpback, curved bones, squinting, harelip, plica polo- 

 nica. 



8. MaculfB. Spots ; as mole, scar, freckle, sunburn. 



Now it is obvious that, in a pathological point of 

 view, aneurism, anchylosis, and scirrhus, have no 

 affinity to each other, nor to spina bifida or scrofula, 

 which are all genera of the same order. Nor have 

 the different orders, deformationes, procidentise, hu- 

 moralia, &c. any very perceptible bond of affinity. 

 But the nosological, like the botanical system of 

 Linnaeus, without being natural, may be useful ; 

 and it were absurd to reject all attempts to classify 

 diseases, because no scheme has been or can be in- 

 vented, capable of giving each state of the body, or 

 its various parts, its precise position in the mind. 

 However, we have no reason to join the outcry of 

 his biographers against the criticism of M. Vicq 

 d'Azyr, who says, " he should have been the last 

 to write on objects that were foreign to him, be- 

 cause he had recourse to that spirit of detail, and 

 that aphoristic and figurative style, which have been 

 considered as defects even in the works which esta- 

 blished his reputation." 



" The whole class of envious persons at Upsal," 

 says Dr Stoever, '' and in other parts of Sweden, 

 found it strange and inconsistent at first to see the 

 botanist Linnaeus appear on the scene as a patho- 

 logist. They made very merry at his expense ; but 

 the goodness of his cause soon became triumphant." 

 That liis nosology was contemptible can hardly be 

 admitted ; but that it ever was triumphant, except- 



