516 S T A 
ment of the university at Halle, in 1694, Frederic Hoffmann, 
with his accustomed liberality, solicited the appointment of a 
medical professorship for Stahl, who accepted the office, and 
became the rival of that distinguished physician as a teacher 
of medical systems, but not in the exercise of candour and 
liberality towards his colleagues. Stahl was conscious of pos¬ 
sessing considerable mental powers, and paid little respect 
to the opinions of others; and he became the leader of a sect 
or school of physicians, in opposition to the mechanical 
theorists, in which he was followed by many eminent per¬ 
sons, not only in Germany, but in other countries, as by Per- 
rault in France, Gaubius in Holland, Porterfield and Simp¬ 
son in Scotland, and by Nichols and Mead in England, 
notwithstanding the very fanciful nature of the hypothesis on 
which his system was founded. The “ Conspectus Medi- 
cinse,” of Juncker was published to illustrate his doctrines in 
Germany; and a succinct account of the system was given 
by Dr. Nichols, in his work “ De Anima Medica,” in this 
country. 
Physicians had always remarked a certain power in the 
animal body of resisting injuries and correcting some of its 
disorders, which they had called nature, and vis medicatrix 
naturae, and Van Helmont had already ascribed some degree 
of intelligence to this power. But it remained for Stahl to 
refer this power entirely to the rational soul, which, he 
affirmed, not only originally formed the body, but is the 
sole cause of its motions, in the constant excitement of which 
life consists. For he maintained that the soul abhors the 
dissolution of its body, and therefore excites and directs all 
its motions, the vital and involuntary as well as the volun¬ 
tary motions, to prevent that dissolution, by obviating putre¬ 
faction, and expelling the corrupted humours by various 
appropriate organs or excretories; in a word, that all the 
functions of the body are entirely directed by the mind, 
which intelligently perceives the tendency of all impressions, 
external and internal, made upon the body, and excites 
such motions as may favour the beneficial, and obviate the 
injurious influence of all causes acting upon it. Whence he 
farther contended, that diseases, such as fevers and spasmo¬ 
dic affections, were in fact the motions voluntarily excited by 
the rational soul, for the purpose of opening emunctories, 
and expelling some offending cause. Generally speaking, 
therefore, it was maintained, that diseases were salutary 
efforts of the presiding soul, and were to be assisted, and not 
interrupted, by the interference of art: yet it was somehow 
admitted, that the mind, from surprise, fear, or despair, 
occasioned by too sudden or vehement impressions made 
upon it, occasionally excited adverse motions, which it was 
right to moderate. Independently of the visionary character 
of this hypothesis, it was justly deprecated as leading phy¬ 
sicians to neglect the use of remedies, or to use only the 
most inert and frivolous ones; and also to set little value 
upon the collateral studies of medical scieuce, even upon 
anatomical researches, which Stahl maintained had little or 
no reference to the art of healing. And, in fact, both he 
and his followers, trusting principally to the attention 
and wisdom of nature, adopted that inactive mode of curing 
by expectation, la medecine expectante, as the French 
have called it; they zealously opposed the use of some 
of the most efficacious remedies, such as opium, cinchona, 
and mercury; and were extremely reserved, even in the 
use of general evacuants, such as bleeding, vomiting, &c., 
although their system led them to refer almost all the disturb¬ 
ances of the motions of the system to a plethora, or too great 
abundance of the blood. This hypothesis was maintained 
by Staid in several publications, with much ability and 
ingenuity; and it continued to influence a great number of 
intelligent physicians for a long time. His principal medical 
work, in which his system is displayed in its most matured 
form, is entitled “ Theoria Medica vera, Physiologiam et Pa- 
thologiam sistens,’’ printed at Halle in 1708. 
The merits of Stahl as a chemical philosopher are of a 
much higher character; and the school which he founded in 
this science, after extending its influence long and universally 
among those who pursued the same inquiries, has only been 
S T A 
superseded of late by farther discoveries. He was the 
inventor of the celebrated theory of phlogiston, which ap¬ 
peared to explain the phenomena of combustion and inflame 
mabilitv, and was received every where with high applause, 
and which, in fact, occasioned Germany to become the 
great school oi chemistry. It cannot be denied, indeed, 
although later experiments have subverted the groundwork, 
that this hypothesis tended greatly to simplify the ideas, and 
perfect the operations of chemists, and entitled its author to a 
high rank amongst the improvers of science. His principal 
chemical work was entitled, “ Fundamenta Chymiee dogma¬ 
tics et experimentalis,” first printed in ] 729, and several 
times reprinted 5 but before that period he had published 
several other works on this subject, such as “ Dissertationes 
de Metallurgiae et Docimasti® Fundamentis,” 1697; and, in 
the same year, “ Experimenta et Observationes 300 Chymic® 
et Physic®,” in which work he principally advanced his doc¬ 
trine of phlogiston. He also published in the German lan¬ 
guage some essays on “Sulphur,” and “On Salts.” 
Stahl was elected a member of the Academy Natur® 
Curiosorum in 1700. He was called to visit Frederic 
William, King of Prussia, at Berlin, in 1716; and after¬ 
wards returned several times to that capital, where his repu¬ 
tation was very high, and where at length he was attacked 
with a fatal disease, in 1734, in the seventy-tourth year of 
his age. See E/oy Diet. Hist, de la Medecine. Gen. 
Biog. 
STAID, participle adjective. Sober; grave; regular; 
composed; not wild; not volatile. 
Put thyself 
Into a ’haviour of less fear, ere wildness 
Vanquish my staidcr senses. Shakspeare. 
To our weaker view, 
O’erlaid with black, staid wisdom’s hue. Milton. 
STA'IDNESS, s. Sobriety; gravity; regularity; con¬ 
trariety to wildness.—If sometimes he appears too gay, yet a 
secret gracefulness of youth accompanies his writings, though 
the staidness and sobriety of age be wanting. 
To STAIN, v. a. [ystaenio, Welsh, from ys and taenu. 
“ Rhag Gwyar or Gnawd, 
“ Afar ystaenawd." Taliessyn, an old British poet. Dr. 
Johnson. —Serenius notices the Welsh word, and adds stem, 
Goth, color; steina, pingere, bitumine obducere.] To blot; 
to spot; to maculate. 
Lend me a looking-glass; 
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, 
Why then she lives. Shakspeare. 
To dve; to tinge! 
The Inn is most amiss— 
And hath but merely sffiiweiApainted walls. Davies. 
To disgrace; to spot with guilt or infamy. 
Of honour void, of innocence, of faith, of purity. 
Our wonted ornaments now soil’d and stain'd. Milton. 
STAIN, s. Blot; spot; discoloration.—We no where 
meet with a more pleasing show than what appears in the 
heavens at the rising and setting of the sun, which is wholly 
made up of those different stains of light that shew them¬ 
selves in clouds of a different situation. Addison —Taint of 
guilt or infamy.—Ulysses bids his friends to cast lots; for if 
he had made the choice himself, they whom he had rejected 
might have judged it a stain upon them for want of merit. 
Broome. —Cause of reproach; shame.—Hereby I will lead 
her that is the praise, and yet the stain of all womankind. 
Sidney. 
STAINBROUGH, a township of England, West Riding 
of Yorkshire; 5 miles from Barnsley. 
STAINBURN, a hamlet of England, in Cumberland; 1 
mile east of Workington. 
STAINBURN, a township of England, West Riding 
of Yorkshire; 4| miles north-east of Ottley. 
STAINBY, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire ; 2j 
miles west-south-west of Colsterworth. 
STAIN'DROP. 
