and the capsule is bilocular. There are eight i 
species natives, of the Cape. 
B TUN ON LAN system, the system of me- 
dicine discovered by the late Dr. Brown, 
and explained at large in his Elements of 
Medicine, it might appear proper to give 
an account of this doctrine under the ge- 
neral article Medicine ; but the new sys- 
tem diners so widely from all former systems 
oi that science, that we think it more con- 
sistent with propriety to delineate it under its 
own proper title. The following will give a 
sufficient view of the outlines of this doc- 
trine to such as are unacquainted with it ; 
and for its minuthc we must refer to the doc- 
tor’s own works, and those of Dr. Becldoes, 
Dr. Jones, &<:. 
Bruno max system, account of . — The hu- 
man body, particularly the system of solids 
it consists of, is a form of living .matter, 
whose characteristics are sensation and mo- 
tion. The capability of being affected by 
external powers is termed excitability ; the 
Agents stimuli, or exciting powers ; the re- 
sult excitement. Without this property (ex- 
citability), the body would be dead' inert 
matter : by this property it becomes living 
matter ; by this property, called into action 
by the exciting powers, it becomes a living 
system. While the stimuli acton the exci- 
tability with a sufficient degree of power, 
then is the pleasant sensation of health : 
when they raise the excitement above this 
point, or depress it below it, disease, takes 
place : when the stimuli cease to act, or the 
system to feel their power, death ensues. 
Excitability is a property of living matter, 
peculiar and inherent, but it is a 'property 
which Dr. Brown did not pretend to explain. 
He left it as sir Isaac Newton did his at- 
traction, , as a property hot to be investigat- 
ed. Of this energy or power there is as- 
signed to every living system, at the com- 
mencement of life, a certain quantity or pro- 
portion ; but its quantity differs in each, and 
in the same body it is found to change ; for 
the excitability, according to circumstances, 
may be “ abundant, increased, accumulated, 
superfluous, exhausted, consumed,” &c. The 
stimuli, or exciting powers, are of two 
classes, external and internal. The external 
stimuli are heat, light, sound, air, and mo- 
tion ; food, drink, medicines, and what- 
ever els-; is taken into the body, not except- 
ing poisons and contagions. The internal 
are the functions of the body, the blood, 
the secretions, muscular exertion, and finally 
the powers of the mind ; as sensation, pas- 
sion, and thought. Excitement is life; the 
natural movements of the machine, and the 
functions resulting from these, as sensation, 
reflection, and voluntary motion, as they 
immediately flow from the exciting powers, 
are vigorous when they are strong, languid 
when they are weak, and cease when thev are 
taken away entirely. Thus our body is con- 
tinually moved by external agents, 'and life 
is a forced state. Our weak frame has an 
unceasing tendency to dissolution, which is 
opposed only by the incessant application of 
exciting powers, which are the sources of life, 
and which, being partially or completely 
withdrawn, are immediately followed by dis- 
ease or death. It is also a principle of this 
doctrine, that “ all stimuli by acting on the 
excitability exhaust it.” Thus the stimuli of 
food, air, motion, passion, and thought, have 
BRUNONIAN SYSTEM. 
supported the body through the labours of 
the day : they have supported the functions 
by acting on the excitability ; in the evening 
it is exhausted by their continued operation; 
they have no longer the same power ; the 
functions fail ; we sink info rest, and conti- 
nue in sleep, unaffected by the stimuli, re- 
newing by sleep that excitability which had 
been exhausted by the labours or by the plea- 
sures of the day; we rise with restored exci- 
tability: we fed a new power of excitement 
in every object around us ; we are refreshed 
in the morning, and languid at night, and 
our whole life is an alternation of motion and 
rest, of action and sleep, of apathy and plea- 
sure, of wasting our excitability by day in 
labour or enjoyment, and of recruiting it by 
night by the abstraction of all stimulant pow- 
ers. The same philosophy extends to the 
duration of life: in childhood excitability is 
abundant in quantity, as being little ex- 
hausted ; but it is low in power, because the 
tender stamina and accumulated excitability 
ot children can neither suffer nor support 
high excitement. Their excitability is so 
abundant, that they are easily supported by 
weak diet and low exciting powers, and 
therefore most of their diseases are diseases 
of weakness. In youth and manhood the 
excitability is yet entire, the stamina are 
strong, the powerful stimuli are applied, and 
high passions prevail: these are the periods of 
vigour, and the aira of inflammatory disease. 
In old age the stamina are worn, the excita- 
bility is exhausted, the common stimuli have 
lost their power, and the system begins to 
decline; we have weakness of body, imbe- 
cility of mind, and asthenic diseases. We 
may last ot all have recourse to more gene- 
rous diet, and raise the stimulant powers by 
substituting wine to water or brandy to v ine ; 
thus perhaps excitement may be*a\v hile sup- 
ported, and life prolonged ; but in a few 
years these also fail. This doctrine farther 
teaches, that our body is never moved but 
by exciting powers. None but stimuli affi ct 
our system. That there are direct sedatives 
in nature, is esteemed an unphilosophical and 
vulgar error. In stimuli there is a gradation 
w hich, being relative to the system, deceives 
our sense; for, as some stimuli are powerful 
and others weak, a low 7 stimulus applied after 
a more powerful one, will stimulate less than 
the former, will allay the motions which the 
former had excited, and will, therefore, be 
named a sedative. 'Fake heat as an example 
of this: cold is but an abstraction of beat, 
yet it is thought a positive existence-; and 
cold is named a sedative and heat a stimulant 
power. To detect this deception of sense, 
plunge the right hand into water at the heat 
of 150°, the left into melting snow ; w ithdraw 
both, and plunge them at once into water at 
100°, it will prove at once stimulant and se- 
dative; cold or sedative to the right hand, 
and hot or stimulant to the left. So is fasting 
an abstraction ol the w onted stimulus of food, 
bleeding of the usual stimulus of blood, and 
so on. Health, then, is the due operation of 
stimuli on a well regulated excitability, pro- 
ducing a moderate excitement, and a plea- 
sant sensation, moving the whole system with 
a just degree of power, and giving all the 
functions their due energy and tone. Asthe- 
nic disease, disease of debiliry or of weakness, 
is the result of stimuli applied in a low 7 de- 
gree, or of tlie system less easily excited. 
M m 2 
' Sthenic' disease, or disease of strength, is the 
result of stimuli applied in too great a degree,- 
or of a system too susceptible of excitement. 
"1 he first is depression of excitement below 
the healthy state: it produces languid mo- 
tions and functions, and requires exciter mn 
for its cure. ' i he second is a strong state o- 
the system, wound up io too high a degret- 
of excitement. It is an exuberance of health 
and strength. It is marked by violent move- 
ments, and is cured by extraction of stimuli. 
Thus are all our maladies either diseases of 
weakness or of excessive strength ; and this 
is the foundation of the Brunoniau scale, which 
has for its middle point health ; below that, 
are arranged the diseases of weakness ; above 
it the diseases of excessive strength ; and in 
both divisions of the scale, diseases are so 
arranged, that the worst forms are set off at 
tiie greatest distance from the middle point, 
to mark them as the widest deviations from 
the healthy state. To illustrate still further 1 
the nature of these two forms of disease, w e 
must observe their respective causes. Sthe- 
nia, or excessive strength, is simply the ef- 
fect of many or powerful stimuli acting on 
the system. Asthenia is the immediate effect 
of withdrawing these ; but asthenia is not so 
simple as its opposite state, for debility varies 
in its nature according to its various causes. 
1 . By abstraction of exciting powers is pro- 
duced a species of debility named direct. 
2. By long or violent application of strong 
exciting powers, the excitability is exhausted j 
both the excitement and the strength fail: 
this species of debility is named indirect . 
3. When the exciting powers are withdrawn, 
and the direct debility produced, it is at the 
same time combined with a new 7 species. By 
merely withdrawing the stimuli, such weak- 
ness would be produced as should be tem- 
porary only, and might be done away bv re- 
storing the usual exciting powers ; but w’here 
the stimuli are withdrawn, excitability is ac- 
cumulated, and when it is accumulated in 
an undue degree, it cannot bear the- usual sti- 
muli, and will not give out the healthy de- 
gree of excitement. Thus, direct debility 
caused by the absence of exciting powers, is 
attended with accumulation of excitability. 
Indirect debility, caused by superabundant 
stimuli, is attended with exhausted excitabi- 
lity. The former is most easily cured, as w r e 
have but to apply stimuli, and raise the ex- 
citement: the latter is difficultly cured; for 
the excitability being in some degree ex- 
hausted, the system is less susceptible, and 
has less excitability to operate upon for the 
restoration of health. The abstraction of 
stimuli is an immediate cause of weakness ; 
high excitement is a state of the system which 
the excitability cannot long endure without 
being exhausted, so that stimuli themselves 
produce ultimate weakness. Since, there- 
fore, high excitement is temporary only, and 
has but one cause, while weakness is a per- 
manent state, and has many causes, the dis- 
eases of debility must in a very great pro- 
portion exceed in number the diseases of ex- 
cessive strength ; and diseases of excessive 
strength must ultimately find there. If Q~ 0 f 
100 diseases arise from weakness, the con- 
clusion must be of the first importance in 
practice. Hence it is a (general principle in 
this system, that though there are many indi- 
vidual diseases, there are but twrn states of 
the system, and tw 7 o general methods of cure ; 
