PATHOLOGY. 
46 
fuppofe to be, becaufe the firft may be fatisfied in the 
view of one or a few anatomies, and the latter, being 
comparative and cafual, mull arife from the view of many.” 
The name of Majendie, already well known by his 
Elements of Phyfiology, is prefented to us, in every pe¬ 
riodical work we receivefromFrance, as occupied in fome 
interefting or ufeful experiment. Palling over his experi¬ 
ments in regard to the nervous fyftem, to the abforptive 
power of veins, See. we may remark, that he has lately 
been endeavouring to difeover fome more effectual mode 
of controlling the action of rabies than has hitherto been 
known. And, though it would be premature to offer 
any opinion on the probable refult of his experiments, 
we may remark, that he has done the public great fer- 
vice by Ihowing the complete inefficacy of drugs hitherto 
reputed fpecifics in the cure of this dreadful difeafe. 
Of Brouffais’s phyfiological fyftem of pathology we 
have given a Ihort account at p. 43. Nothing is wanting 
to the full fuccefs and acceptance of that fyftem, but that 
everybody Ihould think as well of it as the doftor him- 
felf does. On its firft appearance, Dr. Hutchinfon, the 
editor of the London Medical Journal, gave a favourable 
account of it; not quite fufficiently fo, however, as en¬ 
tirely to fatisfy the inventor. Dr. Granville, the prefent 
editor of that work, fpeaks rathercontemptuoufly of it; 
Rafori (the contra-ftimulant fedative Rafori) oppofes it 
on the continent; and upon the whole it feems to be 
going down. Two commentaries on the doftrines of 
Brouffais, of very different chara&ers, have been recently 
produced at Paris. One of them, by Monf. Begin, is in¬ 
tended to advocate his principles, and to difplay them in 
a more perfpicuousand orderly manner than has been done 
by Brouffais himfelf; while the other, publifhed anony- 
moufly in the Revue Medicale, a new monthly journal 
of great merit, is a jeu d’efprit, full of that fine fatire 
and delicate ridicule which the French fo well know how 
to employ, which, while it difplays the chara&er and con¬ 
duct of Brouffais and the merit of his writings with great 
force and fufficient eulogy, deferibes his vanities, his in¬ 
genious obfeurities, the nonchalance with which he cuts 
the gordian knots he happens to encounter, and apolo¬ 
gizes for the art with which he has appropriated to him¬ 
felf the opinions of others, in a manner truly Rabelaic. 
From this publication we fhallmake an extradl, in read¬ 
ing which the reader will bear in mind, that Dr. B. con¬ 
tends that all complaints arife from the ftomach, and that 
lemonade and leeches are to cure every complaint. 
“ A diftinguifhed man of letters, who is publiftiing a 
new edition of Moliere, aware of the ridiculous appear¬ 
ance of fome modern phyficians, has determined to make 
fome variations in the celebrated feene of the comedy of 
that author, entitled Le Malade Imaginaire.- The fol¬ 
lowing is a fpecimen : 
Toinettc, (drejffed as a phyfician.) Let me feel your 
pulfe. Come, come, beat as you ought. Ah ! I’ll foon 
make you go right. Faith ! this pulfe is mightily imper¬ 
tinent. I fee plainly it does not know whom it has to 
deal with. Who is your attending phyfician, fir? 
Argun. Monfieur Purgon. 
Toin. That name is not to be found in my pocket- 
book, amongft the phyficians of eminence. What did 
he fay was the matter with you ? 
Arg. He fays my liver is affected : others contend that 
it is the fpleen. 
Toin. Pooh! pooh ! They are a pack of ignoramus. It 
is your ftomach, fir, that is affected. 
Arg. The ftomach ? 
Toin. Yes ! the ftomach. What do you feel ? 
Arg. I have occaftonally the head-ache. 
Toin. Exaftly fo. The ftomach. 
Arg. 1 fometimes fee double;—I have a veil over my 
eyes. v 
Toin. The ftomach! 
Arg. And a great difficulty in breathing. 
Tom- The ftomach again ! 
Arg. I fuffer from great languor aud laffitude in all my 
limbs. 
'Toin. The ftomach! 
Arg. And I now and then feel pain in my feet, in my 
heels, and toes, as if I had the gout. 
Toin. Exa&ly fo. It is the ftomach ! You eat with 
good appetite ? 
Arg. Yes, fir. 
Toin. The ftomach ! You like to drink a fmall quan¬ 
tity of wine. 
Arg. Yes, fir. 
Toin. The ftomach ! You feel rather drowfy after 
dinner, and delight in taking a nap ? 
Arg. Oh yes, fir. 
Toin. The ftomach, the ftomach, I tell you ! What 
has your phyfician defired you to eat ? 
Arg. He delired me to take fome foup. 
Toin. Onlolugiji! [An appellation of contempt 
adopted by Dr. Brouffais todefignate all thofe phyficians 
who feem to have identified or perfonified the different 
caufes producing difeafes, fuch as the gouty principle, 
the fcrofulous humour, &c.] 
.drg. And chicken. 
Toin. Fatalift ! 
Arg. And occafionally veal. 
Toin. Incendiary! 
Arg. Broth. 
Toin. Murderer! 
Arg. Some frefb eggs. 
Toin. What an aflaflin ! 
Arg. And ftewed prunes in an evening. 
Toin. Incendiary ! the murderous diet of the ontolo- 
giftic fchool. 
Arg. And, above all, he defired me to put water to nay 
wine. 
Toin. lgnorantus, ignoranta, ignoratum ! This is not 
the way of a medecin phyfiologifle. You muft drink pure 
water, which is indeed too nourilhing as it is : it will 
calm the gaftro-inteftinal irritation under which you la¬ 
bour ; and thin your blood, which is now too aenfe. 
You’ll apply five hundred leeches to the pit of the fto¬ 
mach, which will remove the gaftro-enteriiis in the 
twinkling of an eye. Don’t you fee that “irritation 
is preying heavily on the mucous membrane of your 
ftomach, from whence it extends its malignant power 
overall the organs of y'our economy, through fympathe- 
tic irradiations?” Be affured that your phyfician is an 
ontologijt, who will believe only what he fees. I wiil 
come again to fee you in a fortnight, if you are alive ; and, 
above all, reft affured that, if I have abufed my bre¬ 
thren of the profeffion, it was not through envy, but 
for the good of mankind. How fuperior to them all the 
dodlrine phyfiologique makes me ! “ a dodtrine which is 
deftined to do more good even than the immortal difeo- 
very of Jenner.” [The two paragraphs in this fpeech 
marked with inverted commas, are not a parody, but the 
real words of Brouffais.] 
The brain has of late been to the French pathologifts 
what the abdominal vifeera have long been to the Eng- 
lifh, the great object of intereft and the fubjedt of their 
efpecial confideration. Several works of much vaiue. 
have been the refults of their labours. That which pre- 
fents moft evidence of a talent for original obfervation 
and profound and comprehenfive reafoning, is one by 
Dr. F. Lallemand, of Montpellier. The greateft merit 
in the work of Dr. Lallemand confifts in the admirable 
precifion and perfpicuity with which the hiftories of dif¬ 
eafe are given, and, for the moft part, the very judicious 
reflections with which they are accompanied ; the efpe¬ 
cial object of which is to trace the relations between the 
appearances obferved after death, and the fymptoms of 
the difeafe that were manifefted during life. Dr. Lalle¬ 
mand differs from Dr. Roftan refpedting the nature and 
origin of what the.latter has deferibed under the name 
of ramollijfement du cerveau, and thinks that it is really a 
confequence 
