[ *62 ] 
caufes capable of altering the mafs of fluids, 
yet it is always true, that the animal 
fpirits are the immediate principle which 
forms the difeafe. He is moreover con¬ 
firmed in thefe fentiments on finding, 
that by the new theory he can explain phe¬ 
nomena which were impofiible to be re- 
folved by the obfcure doctrines of the 
ancients. The ancients, for in fiance, ex¬ 
plained by fympathy, the vomiting which 
follows a concuffion of the brain, as ivell 
as that which attends nephritic affedlions ; 
but Morton obferves, that in order to 
explain thefe accidents, we muft admit a 
continuity or connexion of the whole 
body with the brain. With the fame prin¬ 
ciple he explains the metaftafis or tranfla- 
tion of a difeafe from one part to another, 
which is obfervable not only in the crifis 
of fevers, where the difeafe quitting one 
region all of a fudden attacks the brain, but 
likewife in peripneumony, which frequently 
changes 
