34 
PATHOLOGY, 
fpirit was, in his eftimation, merely one of its modes, or 
accidental conditions. Malebranche, extending the 
Cartefian dodlrine, endeavoured to explain more fully 
the nature of this union, and to fliow that the foul had a 
more or lefs diftindl confcioufnefs of all the movements 
and affedlions of the body. From thefe tenets, the tran- 
fition to the fyftem developed by Stahl was very eafy ; and 
an attentive review of the progrefs of the opinions in 
queftion mud: convince every one that the Stahlian hypo¬ 
thecs, far from being entitled to the merit of originality 
which its author claimed, was nothing more than an off- 
fpring of the Cartefian philofophy. Educated under 
Wedel, who was a devoted adherent of Sylvius, and an 
affiduous teacher of his do£lrines, Stahl began very early 
to queftion the fufficiency of thofe chemical explanations 
which he heard applied to all the phenomena of life. It 
appeared very wonderful to him, that the humours of 
the body, which are, of themfelves, fo difpofed to putre¬ 
faction, fliould yet fo feldom fall into that ftate ; and that 
the daily prefence of fo many faline fubftances, as we are 
in the habit of receiving in our food, fhould produce fo 
few fymptoms of acrimony. The intervention of animal 
/pints he conceived to be a very unfatisfa&ory fuppofi- 
tion; and all the attempts which had been made to ex¬ 
plain the theory of life on pure chemical and mechanical 
principles he held very cheap. Taking the paffivenefs 
of matter for the balls of his fyftem, he maintained, “ that 
the body, as body, had no power to move itfelf, but 
was put in motion only by immaterial fubftances ; that all 
motion, therefore, was immaterial, and a fpiritual aCt.” 
It had been alw'ays obferved, that there is a certain power 
in the animal body of refilling injuries, and correcting 
fome of its diforders ; and Van Helmont had afcribed 
fome degree of intelligence to this power : but it w'as 
referved for Stahl to refer it entirely to the rational foul, 
which, he affirmed, not only originally formed the body, 
but is the foie caufe of all its motions, not excepting di- 
geftion, affimilation, and fecretion, in the conftant excite¬ 
ment of wdiich life confifts. While he referred to this 
principle the actions by which health is eftablilhed, he 
attributed to its irregularity the occurrence of difeafe; 
admitting however, to a very great extent, the operation 
of flighter caufes, among which plethora held a favoured 
rank. To this ftate Stahl fuppofed the human frame was 
perpetually difpofed, and that at particular periods of 
life this difpofition manifefted itfelf with great precilion 
in different parts of the body. Hence arofe, according to 
him, in infancy complaints of the head, during adolef- 
cence in the pulmonary ftruCtures, and in old age in the 
digeftive organs. Fever he defcribed as an autocratic ef¬ 
fort of nature to conquer the morbific caufe, and to expel 
it from the body ; and all the fymptoms, not excepting 
rigor, were only fo many proofs of the tonic aCtion which 
was thus excited. Congeftions were fuppofed, in con- 
tradiftindlion to obftrudlions, to refult from an afflux of 
the fluids occafioned by the fame tonic power; when ob- 
ftruftion followed, or when the objeCt of the congeftion, 
i. e. evacuation, w as not accompliffied, inflammation took 
place; and the tendency of the violent actions which ac¬ 
companied it, w r as to difperfe the obltrufted humour. 
If this end was not attained, the obftrufted matter be¬ 
came vitiated, and pus was formed. Hypochondriafis, 
gout, melancholy, and almoft all cachectic diforders, 
were attributed to a diminution of the tonic power of the 
vena portae, and the confequent ftoppage of the blood in 
it; while fpafmodic difeafes were thought to indicate an 
excefs of the general tonic power of the fyftem. 
Rejecting the aids derivable from anatomical refearches, 
of the ufe of which in medicine Stahl entertained a very 
mean opinion, he proceeded, in conformity to the general 
principles we have related, to the treatment of difeafe. 
It may very naturally be fuppofed that a theory which 
attributed (o much to the falutary operations of nature, 
was not likely to lead to very active practice: accord¬ 
ingly we find that Stahl adopted, to a very great extent. 
the Hippocratic mode of watching thefe healing opera¬ 
tions, without interfering with them farther than to affift 
their weaknefs or moderate their excefs: and, in fact, he 
and his followers, trailing principally to the operations 
of nature, zealoufiy oppofed the ufe of fome of the moil 
efficacious remedies, as opium, cinchona, and mercury; 
and were extremely referved in the employment of bleed¬ 
ing, vomiting, See. Notwithftanding, however, the hy¬ 
pothetical notions of Stahl, his inert practice, and Iris con¬ 
tempt for anatomical refearch, yet much praife is due to 
him for having directed the attention of pathologifts 
to the phenomena of vitality, and firowing the fallacy of 
the chemical hypothefes, a talk for which he was pre-emi¬ 
nently qualified by his profound inveftigations in tire 
fcience of chemiftry. 
Hoffman was a phyfician who obtained great celebrity 
at this period, lefs however on account of his fuperior 
mental faculties than for his extenfive erudition, and the 
art he had of difplaying it to advantage. He was edu¬ 
cated under the mechanical fed of phyiicians ; and it is 
rather remarkable, that Stahl, who had been taught the 
chemical doctrines, fhould have difearded entirely chemi¬ 
cal illuftrations of difeafe, while Hoffman, who had been 
taught by the mechanifts, admitted the exiftence of acid 
cacochymite, and even attempted to fliow how the union 
of this acid with blood produced neutral files which were 
the caufe of gout, calculi, rheumatifm, and cutaneous 
difeafes. Though engaged at one period of his life in 
controverting the opinions of Stahl, on the fuppofed 
ground of their atheiftical tendency, yet the theory of 
Hoffman, as far as the vital or motive principle was con¬ 
cerned, fcarcely differed from that of his enlightened 
colleague: for, though he applied to it the appellation of 
nervous fluid, or ether, and fixed its feat in the nervous 
fyftem ; yet, in attributing to it the faculties of mind, 
fenfe, and intelligence, he cauled it to approach very 
nearly to the anima, or foul, of Stahl. Like Stahl, too, 
he allowed that morbid aCtions were frequently induced 
by a plethoric ftate of the fyftem; and, in conformity 
likewife with the views of that author, he referred much 
to the obftrudlions of the humours, efpecially in the vena 
portae. Fever and inflammation he fuppofed to arife from 
fpafm, or conftridlion of the capillary veffels, particularly 
of the fkin, an opinion which was illuflrated and im¬ 
proved in after-times, and more fully developed in the 
famous theories of Cullen. 
In the practical department of the art, however, Hoff¬ 
man left Stahl far behind him. We have to obferve in 
his treatment of inflammatory diforders great decifion 
and corredtnefs, and confequently a great degree of fuc- 
cefs. He aboliflied too, in a great meafure, the fudorific 
plan of treatment which the humoral pathologifts had 
pradtifed to a very dangerous extent, and to which Stahl 
was particularly attached. To him likewife we are in¬ 
debted for the ufe of the Liquor anodynus, an excellent 
and well-known article of the materia medica. • He like¬ 
wife fhowed the great ufe of bark in intermittent fevers, 
and of chalybeates in chronic diforders. Moreover he in- 
veftigated, with great care, the -compofition of mineral 
waters, and taught the a< 5 l of preparing them artificially. 
We ought not to forget to remark that, in the work of 
Hoffman, “ De Confenfu patium nervofarum,” many va¬ 
luable obfervations will be found, particularly thofe 
which regard the influence which various organs exert 
upon one another. 
But the phyfician who obtained at this period the 
higheft rank as a pathologill was Boerhaave. Educated 
by his father with a view to the miniftry, he imbibed at 
an early age a knowledge of the learned languages; af¬ 
terwards applying himfelf with affiduity to the Itudy of 
mathematics, and then to the profound inveftigations of 
moral philofophy, he next proceeded to botany and na¬ 
tural hiftory, by which he laid the foundation for a very 
extenfive acquaintance with the fcience of medicine, 
which at length he adopted for his profeffion. See Boer- 
I HAAVE, 
