42 P A T H O 
from the local application of fubftances really affimilable, 
or from the prefence of fuch in the fyftem generally. 
This dodtrine of irritation was adopted by Giannini, 
and applied by him to the explanation of the phenomena 
of fever arifing from contagion. The virus, he fays, on 
being admitted into the fyftem, in proportion as it is 
diffufed and applied to different parts of the body, caufes 
an irritation, which is improperly called excitement, or 
the effects of a Jiimulant. This irritation extending 
throughout the fyftem, becaufe the irritating matter is 
thus diffufed, carries every-where a local caufe of difeafe, 
and thus produces a malady that is “univerfally local,” 
(una malattia univerfalmente locale,) but which does not 
conftitute th ejllicnic diathefis of the fchools. This fever 
is only the tumultus tolo corpore diffufus of Brown ; and 
is fimilar to the affedtion arifing from the irritation of a 
ftone in the bladder, or the fever arifing from burns, fe- 
verefurgical operations, &c. fo well treated by Dumas. 
Guani, Bondoli, and Rubini, confidered this ftate of 
irritation as a particular diathefis, and propofed what 
they imagined to be the caufes of its exiftence and pro- 
grefs. Profeffor Tommaflini alfo adopted the elementary 
principles of the fame dodlrine, but modified the propo¬ 
rtions the phyficians already named had made refpedting 
its laws. He believes that irritants may at length give 
rife to real inflammation. The following are the general 
axioms he endeavours to eftablilh. 
ift. There exifts an order of fubftances (as well as a 
partial condition of the animal ftrudture, which rela¬ 
tively to the reft of the organization is an extraneous 
body) which, on making an impreflion on the animal 
economy, produce an adtion different from thofe termed 
Jiimulant, and fedutive, or more properly contra-Jlimulant; 
and which is, properly fpeaking, irritation. 
adly, Some fubftances are naturally and primitively ir¬ 
ritative, but which may fecondarily become ftimulants 
where they give rife to phlogofis; or they may become 
contra-ftimulants (fedatives ) when they produce pain or 
coldnefs, or diftrefling naufea; as pain, coldnefs, and 
naufea, themfelves, aft as contra-ftimulants. Others are 
irritants by their quantity or concentration, or the man¬ 
ner of applying them, which induce either mechanical 
diftenfion, or chemical decompofition, accidentally, and 
may by their nature appertain to one or the other of the 
two clafles of dynamics. 
3dly, The ftate they produce may be diftinguifhed 
from all other ftates by the following charadters: i. by 
its incurability by means either of ftimulants or contra- 
ftimulants : 2. by the obftinacy of its duration in fpite 
of all attempts to remove it, as long as the caufe is pre- 
i'ent and active: 3. by the readinefs, and as it were in- 
ftantaneoufnefs, of its ceflation, as foon as the caufe is 
deftroyed : 4. by the type of the difeafe, which is mani- 
feftly local, even where the difturbance by fympathetic 
content is univerfally difperfed. 
4thly, Irritating fubftances may be either chemical 
agents,which enter the organization, or mechanical agents, 
which torment it, or a difordered ftate of a living part, 
which becomes a centre of irritation with refpedt to the 
whole fyftem. 
5thly, Inaflimilability, lieterogenity, and inaffinity, 
cannot be the efi'ential and diagnoftic charadters of irri¬ 
tants ; becaufe thofe characters do not appertain exclu- 
fively to them ; nor, perhaps, to them univerfally. 
6thly, In the prefent ftate of our knowledge, we are, 
then, conftrained to define an irritant a pojleriori, that 
■which produces the train of morbid phenomena de- 
feribed under the name of the irritative tumult. 
7thly, Irritation very often terminates by inducing 
phlogofis in the centre of its own adtion, and then it en¬ 
ters into the clafs of diathefic (inflammatory) difeafes, 
preferving neverthelefs, not urfrequently, the character 
of irritation. 
1. The difeafes of the firft clafs, thofe confifting in ex- 
ceflive excitement, may then arife from all irritating and 
LOGY. 
exciting caufes, whether contagious virus, mechanical 
or chemical injury, or excefs of the natural excitants of 
the economy. Thefe produce, in the firft inftance, local 
effects of the nature above indicated, which eft'edts are at 
length diffufed over the fyftem to a greater or lefs extent, 
according to the violence of the caufe, and the conftitu- 
tional difpofition of the patient. This inflammatory ex¬ 
citement is of the fame nature, from whatever caufe it 
arifes, and in whatever part it may be feated. It is of 
importance to remark, too, that local excitement pro¬ 
duces only excitement as far as its influence extends, and 
not debility of the reft of the fyftem by any concentration 
of the vital actions, as is taught in fome other fchools. 
Inflammation may occur, alfo, in an inter.fe degree, in 
any certain organ, whilft the reft of the fyftem is in a 
ftate of the utmoft debility ; and it is, indeed, more rea¬ 
dily excited in a ftate or weaknefs than in vigour, be¬ 
caufe the animal fibre is then more fufceptible of the in¬ 
fluence of ftimulants. Inflammation is, however, always 
originally of a Jlhenic character; and it preferves this as 
long as it exifts, even in the midft of the molt defolating 
privation of vital power. 
All fevers, acute and chronic, whether arifing from 
the impreflion of cold, excefs of the natural excitants of 
the body, animal contagion, or marfli-effluvia; all acute 
and chronic local inflammations, cutaneous ulcerative 
difeafes, and phthifis; take their place in the firft clafs. 
The general caufes of this clafe of difeafes have already 
been defignated as thofe of effentially excitant or irrita¬ 
ting qualities, but, in addition to thofe fliould be men¬ 
tioned, fome others which, under circumftances, are con¬ 
tra-ftimulants. Thus, pain, to a certain degree, is a feda- 
tive; but it becomes an excitant, when intenfe; and 
many fubftances, which are contra-ftimulant in certain 
quantities, become either excitants or irritants when 
given in larger quantities; this is the cafe with the tar* 
tarized antimony, belladonna, digitalis, &c. 
2. The fecond clafs of maladies are of the nature which 
thedodtrines of Brown would term direEl debility, or that 
depending on want of due excitement. The dodtrine 
under confideration does not admit the exiftence of fuch 
as he termed difeafes of indirect debility, or exhauftion 
from previous excefs of excitement. The effedft of fti¬ 
mulants is confidered to be conftantly and folely excite¬ 
ment. 
3. The charadter of the difeafes of the third clafs was 
indicated when the nature of irritation was particularly 
confidered. 
This dodirine not only oppofes the moft favourite 
dogmas of the Brunonians, that of the exiftence of what 
they term indirect debility ; it alfo attacks their principle 
of the effentially ftimulating quality of every fubftance 
making an impreflion on the animal body. It teaches, 
ift, That many fubftances adt on the animal fibre in a 
mode diametrically oppofite to the ftimulant agency, 
whence refult the effedts which Brown attributed only 
to the negative adtion, or want of adtion, of different 
fubftances; or to the diminution of the natural exci¬ 
tants of the fyftem. 2dly, That we may deftroy, by the 
adminiftration of thefe fubftances, the effedts of exceflive 
ftimulants, and that without thefe fubftances neceffarily 
producing any evacuation ; and that we may, by fre¬ 
quent repetition of their ufe, produce difeafes which are 
not fufceptible of cure by the intervention of ftimulants. 
3dly, That contra-ftimulants, fuch as blood-letting and 
purgatives, offer the means of cure for all maladies 
which refult from excefs of ftimulation; and that, by 
the fame analogy, the effedts refulting from the abule 
of contra-ftimulants are combated with efficacy by ftimu¬ 
lants, fuch as wine, aromatics. See. 4thly, That the 
animal fibre fupports the agency of ftimulants or contra- 
ftimulants in a diredt ratio, refpedtively, to the degree of 
intenfity of the diathefis of excitement or of debility. 
5thly, That we may difeover the degree of the diathefis 
rather by the aptitude to fupport the agency of the one 
or 
