312 



LINNiEUS. 



ing in his own university, no one v/ho is desirous 

 of adhering to truth can assert. 



His theory of medicine is amusing, if not in- 

 structive. He supposes the human body to consist 

 of a cerehroso-mediillary part, of which the nerves 

 are processes; and a cortical part, including the 

 vascular system and its fluids. The nervous sys- 

 tem, which is the animated part, derives its nour- 

 ishme^it from the finer fluids of the vascular system, 

 and its energy from an electrical principle inhaled 

 by the lungs. The circulating fluids are capable of 

 being vitiated by acescent or putrid ferments, the 

 former acting on the serum, and causing critical 

 fevers; the latter on the crassamentum, and exciting 

 phlogistic diseases. Eruptive ailments are excited 

 by external causes, which he supposes to be animal- 

 cula. The cortical or vascular system undergoing 

 continual waste, requires continual reparation, 

 which is effected by means of suitable diet. Its 

 diseases arise from improper food, and are to be re- 

 medied by sapid medicines ; while those of the me- 

 dullary system are cured by olid substances. 



Systems of nosology, theories of medicine, and 

 classifications of natural objects and phenomena, 

 agree in this one respect, that they are all eagerly 

 embraced, strenuously defended, fall into disuse, 

 and become subjects of ridicule. Such must be the 

 fate of the Linnsean system of botany, as it has been 

 of the other fancies of its author ; and such must be 

 the fate of every system not founded on organic 

 structure and its modifications, or upon external 

 form as connected with internal disposition. 



In I7()6, he published a small work extending to 

 only twenty-nine pages, entitled Clavis Medicinae 



