DISEASE, 
the ime hae o that which brings forth the eruption of 
t, if the contagion of thefe two difeafes be 
endenti 3 if one re alrea a begun t 
appear, it will aaa difappea du uring the operation of 
the other contagion, an ~appear go through its 
ftages, on the celfation of on latter. This | is generally true 
with refpect to all the febrile contagious difeafes, chicken- 
pox, fearlet- ei as well as thofe juft mentioned. ‘The 
co and the [mall-pox continue their a€tion together, 
s the 
tions can take place at the fame time, is not altogether with- 
out its exceptions. Belides thefe contagious feveray various 
cther difeafes are saree interrupted and fufpendced by 
the occurrence o ue 
fever; 
pen nded vee aie difeatee 3 phthifis palin is pecshonale 
fufpended by a ftat a pregnancy, &c. 
he pa fes of difeafe are, in fad, the effential 
morbid conditions of the whole body or 
imply the difeafe itfelf:.‘* prefens morbum facit, fublata 
‘tollit, mutata mutat.’? The f{peculations of phyficians, re- 
{pecting the proximate caufes of ser have been very. 
various in different ages, according to the prevalent philo- 
ophy ; a circumftance in which their fatility i isimplied ; for 
the operationsof nature are immutable, theories that 
F nded on the obfervation of nature alone,. cannot 
change with the caprice of fpeculative min t has been 
he misfortune of medicine, that the {peculative and mecha- 
nical fctences had received a previous cultivation ; and hence, 
that transf-rring their hypothefes upon thefe topics to th 
-animal fyflem, phyficians have ciftorted all their views of the 
nétural operations of that 
ie themfe ake in what they concewe to be an inveftigation 
They fet out, in the early ages, with the doctrine 
Of Atittotle, a o, and Pythagoras, reipecting the elements, 
the temperaments, the harmony o 
Vv 
-of the philofophers, before they had learned the necefflity 
of difcriminating-between fas afcertained by experiment 
and obfervation,; and ‘the eir own conjectures and opinions, 
‘medicine was darkened and obitru€ted by the language and 
piel es thefes borrowed from thofe f{ciences. 
athematicians wage 
againft thefe. dodtrines, aac aplete to the ee of 
tie and uncertook to cxplain them by axioms, and 
lemmas, problems, theorems, and fo on; with which they 
‘flourifhed plaufibly.enough on paper, but which, it fhould 
‘feem, would avail them little at the fide of the fick. Then 
the doctrines of mechanical relaxation and diftention of ob- 
aft century have gradually approached to 
a more accurate’ ise) geof the caufes of difeafe, by the 
sultivation of anatomy, and phyfiology, by a more clofe and 
fyitem, and -therefore have de- - 
experimental inveftigation of the phenomena of health and 
difeafe : and that principle in the anima 
: : ch Er 
p tt 
{chools of Hoffman ard Stahl, has gradually 
iated, and acknowledged, as the peculiar 
“the living body, in the fyftems of Cullen, Brown, and 
Darwin, and in the writings of preétical phyficians. Thofe 
phy Asians. it is true, more efpeciaily the two latter, have too 
haftily generalized the fa&ts, which have been afcertained on 
this. fubjeét, and therefore ‘their hypothefes are ee the 
fateof thofe of their predeceflors. See Mepicine. This 
is the age of experiment in medicine, rather cua of fyftem 
and hypothefis; but much remains yet to be done, before 
we can attempt to give a fatisfaGiory account of the proximate 
caufes of difeafcs in genera any morbid changes take 
place, which are not accompanied by any palpable or vifible 
sreratioas ii e ftru f parts, but ‘gable 
the derangements of the functions only; fuch are the extreme 
be oo by the obvious phenomena that 
are connected wit 
It is with-thefe S eabens or fymptoms alone, therefore, 
that the phyfician is required to occupy his attention ; and, 
by mean 8 of thefe external figns, he will be able to difcover 
though he ma 
al a te is unable to explain the 
e ricity, or magneti{m, but 
nee Ge fatisfa€torily traces hee laws. An obfervation 
of the different morbid phenomena, as they are combined in 
different forms of difeafe, conititutes what is technically 
termed, the Diacnosis, and is neceflarily implied in every 
rational attempt to cure difeafes 
of the moit obvious wid general diftin@ions which 
oceurs to the obferver of difeafes, is that of the two great 
claffes of aid and chronic aia. Acute difeetes are thofe, 
in which there is a great and fudden perturbaticn of the vital 
and fa functions 5 as i i 
f, eee heat of {ki e other 
the a er funétions alfo frequently {u me asin de ian, 
hre os &e. ‘They neceffarily run through their courle, 
and terminate in death, in recovery, or in fome chronie dif. 
cafe, witiin a fhort {pace of time. ,The various continued, 
remittent, and enn aE fevers, as well as the organic 
inflammations, cynanche, urify, enteritis, &c. are 
-amples of acute difeafes. Chronic difeafes, from sedvos. time, 
are fuch as A 
re of gravitation, e 
U. 
or mont year: 
ane fever, properly fo called, but are often accompanied by 
the daily paroxy{ms of hedfic fever ; which, without violently 
difturbing the functions, contributes, by the daily ee 
of its irritations, to wear out the vital powers. Phthifis 
pulmonalia, tabes mefenterica, and other forms of decline 
dropfies, {curvy, diabetes, &c. are examples of chronic dil. 
eafes. 
Another se ana of difeafes, is of thofe which are ge- 
neral, or afie untions of the body in general, and 
‘hele which are il or are confined in their effects to fome 
particular part. aps it is not ftrictly correct to {peak - 
ofa ae ae i it there is a difeafe in ious the ea 
fy ftem is €, it is idiopathic fever; but ev 
this comping it : aad whether there be not, as in sal 
ot 
