76 
PATHOLOGY. 
then took me by the arm, and turned me gently round, 
with my face towards the door of the entrance, over 
which was a gilded lattice, concealing the emperor, who 
had placed himfelf there to witnefs the vifit. Our flay in 
the room did not exceed fifteen or tw enty minutes. The 
four large windows were fhaded externally by gilded 
lattices, and the intervening pannels were covered with 
mirrors and arabefque tapeltry. The divan, which en¬ 
circled the chamber, was veiled with crimfon cloth, 
richly embroidered with gold, furrounded with culhions 
of the fame defcription ; and the floor was covered with a 
fuperb Perfian carpet. On our return to the firft pavilion, 
I, of courfe, coincided with the Boerhaavians, and wrote 
a prefcription to that effeft. Indeed, had (he been a 
princefs of any other European court, it is probable that 
a large bleeding would have been decided upon ; but, 
from the ignorance and prejudice of her attendants, I 
found it impoflible to convince them of its neceflity ; and 
on confidering that the miftakes, real or imaginary, of 
the Turkifh court-phyficians, are frequently vifited by 
the bow-ftring, I had but little inclination to bring the 
lives of my colleagues into farther jeopardy. The He- 
kim-Bachi and Hazni Vekili therefore carried my pre¬ 
fcription, and interpreted it to the fultan, who, in re¬ 
turn, fent back a complimentary mefiage, and a purfe con¬ 
taining one hundred and fifty fequins.” 
In cafe our readers fltould feel interefted in the fate of 
the patient, w'e mult add, that the fultana funk under 
her illnefs in the courfe of a week: but her age was fe- 
venty-two ; and her Ion, far from giving way to the bar¬ 
barous practice of punilhing the court-phyfician, figni- 
fied to him that the event; was evidently in the courfe of 
nature, and fltould make no alteration in the confidence 
which he enjoyed. This prince, deferving of a better 
fate, was the unfortunate Selim who loft his life by an 
infurreftion of the Janiflaries in 1807. 
GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 
In the prefent philofophic age, it appears needlefs to 
difcufs the propriety and neceflity of being guided by 
reafon in our pathological inveftigations. Very few pro- 
feflional gentlemen will now be found ftri&ly empirical ; 
and thofe few are among the leaft honoured and lead de¬ 
ferving in our profeflion. There is fomething in the 
human mind fo prone to enquire into the caufe why, and 
the reafon wherefore, that the verieft empiric in the prac¬ 
tice of phyfic will never be contented with attaching 
himfelf to fafts, as he profefles, without regard to infe¬ 
rential reafoning. There is fomething fo gratifying to 
one’s love of fcience, fomething which fo evidently leads 
to better information, even in the vagueft explanation 
of natural phenomena, that we cannot be furprifed that 
it has been attempted in all ages. 
Yet, in the courfe of our hiftory of medicine, we have 
had frequent occalion to fhow how fatal has been the 
refult of too much theory. Independently, however, of 
the circumftance that what is injurious to the progrefs 
of fcience in its infant ftate, may ceafe to become fo 
when it is more advanced, we have found hitherto no 
fyftem of medicine which has fufflciently accounted for 
all morbid phenomena, or in which many huge gaps and 
deficiences have not been filled up by gratuitous afler- 
tions. 
In the infant ftate of medicine there can be no doubt 
that theory often exerted a moft decided influence on 
that fcience. But the paucity of fafts, the data whence 
the theories of the ancients were framed, were the caufe 
©f their frequent errors. They were like labourers at¬ 
tempting to build a lofty palace with a few ftones. In our 
own time, however, we have fo far advanced in the ac¬ 
cumulation of fafts, that, though much remains to be 
done, we are'compelled in fome meafure to generalize 
and fyftematize our knowledge, which elfe would become 
too burthenfome for memory. To follow up our fimile, 
we may be faid in our own time to be in pofleflion of 
materials fufflcient forbuilding a liable edifice ; and hence 
we may now look forward to the eftablilhment of a fyftem 
which, to ule the arrogant expreflions of Darwin “may 
not moulder, like the ftruffures already erected, into the 
fand of which they w'ere compofed, but which may (land 
unimpaired like the Newtonian Philofophy, a rock arnid 
the wafte of ages.” 
We (hall not paufe here to enquire into the utility of 
fyftems of medicine. Our periodical medical publications 
have lately raifed much uproar againft fyftems. It mull 
be obvious to every one, however, that a feries of dry in- 
fulated fadils, or of reafonings applicable only to a limited 
number of phenomena, can never be fufflciently remem¬ 
bered, or indeed perfectly known. Provided, therefore, 
we wander not into the mazes of hypothefis, provided 
our analogies are not forced, or our claflifications likely 
to lead to erroneous methods of praftice, it mull be al¬ 
lowed that we are advancing our knowledge, clearing 
away many erroneous notions, and reconciling many 
contradiilory opinions, by.taking general and extended 
views of difeafe. See vol. xvii. p. 24.5. 
We have faid that the knowledge of the ftru£lure and 
funftions of man ftiould precede the ftudy of pathology. 
Of the animal ftrufture we have given an ample account 
in the firft volume of our work, under the article Ana¬ 
tomy; of the fecond w'e propofe to treat under the ar¬ 
ticle Physiology. In the mean time, the more clearly 
to develope the opinions we have adopted, it will be ne- 
ceflary to give a fliort flcetch of the economy of man, and 
of the moll prominent fyftems and moft important ftruc- 
tures which belong to his organization, the better to un- 
derftand in what difeafe a deviation from this ftate con- 
fifts. 
In the organization of man, then, the firft fyftem to be 
conlidered is the nervous. It confifts of the cranial brain, 
the fpinal marrow, nerves, and ganglia. By means of 
this fyftem, all mental emotions are communicated to the 
other parts of the animal frame, and, through its medium, 
all external impreflions are communicated to the mind. 
We obferve likewife a fibrous ftrufture of different kinds 
in various parts; as mufcular, offeous, See. the molt ge¬ 
neral and important of which are the mufcular ones. To 
thefe is added a fundamental cellular ftrudture, which ap¬ 
pears to tonneft all parts of the other fyftems together; 
and which has various appearances in regard todiverfity of 
fubftance, and indeed in regard to the lecretions derived 
from it. The union of thele three fyftems takes place in 
various modes : in fome cafes in tubes, or on membranes, 
&c. &c. and the more remarkable of thefe unifons may 
be aptly divided into the digeftive, refpiratory, fanguife- 
rous, fecernent, and abforbent, fyftems; and this phyfiolo- 
gical divifion we have taken as the bafis of our arrange¬ 
ment, which agrees with the excellent one lately made 
by Dr. Good, in his Phyfiological Syltem of Nolology. 
Many objeftions have been made however to all the 
prefent arrangements; the moft important of which is, 
that, by allowing the attention of the medical praftitioner 
to be exclufively direfled to one fyftem or to one organ, 
it prevents that due attention being paid to morbid cate¬ 
nations, which the practice of phyfic imperioufly de¬ 
mands. There is nothing, however, in the nature of 
nofology which renders this error a'venial one. It mull 
be allowed that morbid impreflions are generally primarily 
made on one particular tilfue or organ; and it mull be 
allowed too, that a fyftem which is lecondarily affected, 
often fuflers the moft feverely ; or that the fyftem fecon- 
darily affedled may be the moft important to life, and 
hence our attention ftiould be chiefly directed towards it. 
We will venture to affert, that whoever has afliduoufly 
ftudied the ftrudfureof parts and their phyfiology, cannot 
fall into the error of confining his attention to one part 
of the animal economy to the exclufion of the reft. 
To render this more plain, we (hall proceed with fome 
further account of the adlion of the different fyftems 
above mentioned upon each other. If the animal frame 
3 were 
