PATH 
Sagar’s definitions are moflly taken with little variation 
from Sauvages; but are rendered intolerably long by- 
confounding Sauvages’s generic characters with his ge¬ 
neric descriptions,and running the two together: fo that, 
in (lead of eighteen or twenty-words, which is, perhaps, 
the utmoft that ought to be allowed, and more than the 
Linnaean canons permit in botany, we have Sometimes up¬ 
wards of a hundred, filling an entire page, as in rubeola, 
whofe definition, if fo it may be called, extends to a 
hundred and ten lines; and in aphtha, which employs a 
hundred and thirteen. He is lefs redundant in the num¬ 
ber of his genera than Vogel, though he makes a boall 
of having extended them to 351. It would have been 
better for him, as Cullen obferves, to have boafted of hav¬ 
ing exercifed, in an equal degree, his power of compref- 
fion. The fyftem of Sagar is rendered more complete 
than either Vogel’s or Linnaeus’s by being filled up with 
his Species. Thefe, however, are deduced, with occa- 
fional alterations, from Sauvages, and exhibit the Same 
verbofity as his genera. 
The main objeCt which- Cullen propofed to hiinfelf, 
and a more important he could not laydown, was that of 
brevity and Simplicity ; and the Sauvagefian claffification 
(for Sagar’s was not then before the public) offended in 
both refpeCls. He determined, therefore, upon changing 
it, and re-calling the fyftem from its commencement. 
Inftead of ten claffes, he conceived that four might Suf¬ 
fice, formed, as he propofed to form them, of a caliber 
capacious enough to Swallow up all the reft. He moulded 
his four claffes accordingly, and diftinguiftied them by 
the names of 
Pyrexia, Febrile Disorders. Cachexia, General Diforder. 
Neurofes, Disorders of the Locales, Local Difeafes. 
Nerves. 
Influenced throughout the whole of his reform by the 
Same Spirit of fimplicity and concentration, he reduced 
the forty-four orders of Sauvages to twenty, and his three 
hundred and fifteen genera to one hundred and fifty-one. 
He next carried his pruning hook into the field of Spe¬ 
cies ; Some he found to be repetitions of the Same difeafe 
occurring under different genera, and others mere Symp¬ 
toms of other disorders, inftead of diftin< 5 t or idiopathic 
affections ; all which were fteadily lopped off; and, in 
this manner, the reduction in the Species bore an equal 
proportion to that in the genera. The genera and Spe¬ 
cies that remained were next enlifted into his own Ser¬ 
vice, moftly with the refpeCtive names affigned them by 
Sauvages, though the definitions were generally re-com- 
pofed, and apparently modelled in confonance with the 
reformer’s own practical observations. 
Thus completed and fit for ufe, the new fyftem was 
firft darted in the larged medical School of Europe, its 
author prefiding at the head of it. It is not, therefore, 
furprifing, that it fliould inftantly have ruftied into popu¬ 
larity, and become a fubjeCt of general approbation. Yet 
it did not (land in need of this adventitious Support to 
introduce it to public favour. Its aim at fimplicity, as 
wdl in extent as in arrangement, was noble, and befpoke 
correCt views and a comprehenfive mind ; it promifed a 
definable facility to the (Indent, and a chafte finifti to the 
architecture of the nofological temple. The author 
ftiowed evidently that he had laboured his attempt in no 
ordinary degree ; and many of his definitions discovered 
a maftery that had never before been exemplified : pic¬ 
tures painted to the life, and of proper dimenfions. 
To this extent of praife Dr. Cullen is fairly entitled. 
That his fyftem, nevertheless, has faults, and insurmount¬ 
able ones, it would be abfurd to deny; for they meet us 
at the very outfet, and run through the whole of its tex¬ 
ture and conftitution. Dr. Good notices the errors and 
inconveniences of the fyftem under the three following 
heads: 1. DefeClive arrangement. 2. Want of discrimi¬ 
nation between genera and Species. 3. LooSeneSs of dis¬ 
tinctive character in the laft general divifion, or clafs. 
Vol. XIX No. 1289. 
O L O G Y. 83 
We (hall have occafion to notice only the firft and laffof 
thefe heads. 
Of the four claffes adopted by Dr. Cullen, the firft two, 
PYREXi-ffi and Neuroses, have considerable merit, and 
this merit is exclusively his own. Each term fuggefts to 
the mind at once a peculiar group of difeafes, of Sufficient 
range for a leading divifion, and occupies a province pof- 
feffing a Sort of natural outline, or urrondiffement , as the 
French chorographers denominate it; in” which, if the 
boundary occasionally fail or lofe itfelf in the adjoining 
provinces, it is eafily Supplied by the hand of art. At 
times, indeed, it Seems difficult, under Such a fyftem, not 
to overftep the natural boundary imported by thefe terms 
in their common life, and, like the late ruler of France, 
to give in many parts a broader and an altogether arti- 
iicial outline by the invafion of adjoining diftriCls ; and, 
from the paucity of his claffes, Dr. Cullen has frequently 
found himfelf compelled to Such a tranfgreffion, and has 
afforded us a palpable inftanceof it in the very clafs with 
which he commences ; for the tribe of Hemorrhages, 
which forms one of its orders, have no direCt catenation 
with any idea fuggefted by pyrexy in the common ufe of 
the term ; they require coercion to bring them into a 
date of union; and, what is (till worfe, Dr. Cullen, with 
all the force he could employ, has found himfelf incapa¬ 
ble of coercing more than one half of them ; and, conse¬ 
quently, has been obliged to leave the other half behind, 
or rather to banifti them for contumacy to the extreme 
region of his fourth clafs. So that in his fyftem they ex¬ 
hibit a wide and lamentable divorce, and afford a ftriking 
and perpetual memorial of the tyranny which pervades it 
in Spite of its attractive exterior. 
Still, however, the firft two claffes are fubftantially 
good; and have in Some fliape or other been copied by 
almoff every Succeeding nofologift. The third clafs has 
all'o a claim to attention, though the term Cachexije, by 
which it is denominated, has been ufed, and (till con¬ 
tinues to beufed, in Senfes fo extremely different by dif¬ 
ferent writers, that it by no means fuggefts to the mind 
a conneffed group of difeafes, with the Same readinefs as 
Pyrexiae or Neurofes. As a clafs, indeed, the divifion of 
Cachexias occurs in all the preceding writers, with the 
exception of Linnaeus; and fo far Dr. Cullen can plead 
-authority'; in Linnseus it is reduced to a genus; and in 
Vogel it is given, with lingular itnprecifion, both as a 
clals and a genus, diftinguiftied by a mere difference of 
number. Under every w'riter, however, the term is em¬ 
ployed in a various fenfe ; Sometimes importing depraved 
external colour alone; Sometimes depraved colour and 
form ; Sometimes depraved colour, form, and fize ; and 
Sometimes, as in Cullen’s definition, deprived habit of 
the whole or a great part of the body, withoutany notice 
whatever of the preceding qualities. 
But by far the moll faulty and incorrigible part of Dr. 
Cullen’s arrangement confifts in his laft divifion, or clafs, 
Locales. It has no Scientific relation to the preceding 
claffes, no parallel or appofition with them. To have 
brought it into any Such kind of bearing, the w hole of 
the former ffiouki have been denominated conjunctively 
Universales, as has been done by Dr. Macbride. But 
this would have deftroyed the general calling of the ar¬ 
rangement, and have produced a divifion which was not 
wanted, and perhaps does not exill. It mult be obvious 
to the flighted obferver, that the Sole objeCt of this clafs is 
to form an appendix to the three preceding, for the pur- 
pofe of receiving, like the Cryptogamia ot the botanical 
fyftem, Such genera as the foregoing claffes could not be 
brought to include. From its name and capacity, how¬ 
ever, it is altogether inadequate to its intention ; and, 
while the term (lands inlulated and without relation to 
its fellow-terms, its intrinfic and effential idea (that of 
articular “part or place”) creates an insurmountable 
ar to the reception of a great proportion of the genera 
which it is direClly intended to comprife. 
Of thefe difeafes, therefore, Cullen has been obliged 
Z to 
