xxivnieaflesINTRODUCTION TO THEandisfcarlet fever, as well as in fmall-pox, the general indication to diminim the inflammatory diatheiis, without the leaft regard to the particular nature of the contagion, or the ilage of eruption ; but thefe are carefully to be dhlmguiihed from the plague, andof cureother eruptive difeafes of a totally oppoiite character and that without attending to the peculiarity of the refpiration, or the precife nature of the morbific caufe, the certain things to be attended to are,:far the difeafed condition deviates from health ; and in what deThe exanthemagree the living body approximates towards death. tons fymptoms in the two claffes of complaints, varying in each, their form only, and not their nature*far, he declares that difeafes of the fame be relieved, or cured, by the fame mode of treatment ; and that the volumes of diagnoftics, and the endlefs diftinctiona of nofology, in ipite of the authority of even Baglivi and Sydenham, when oppofed to clear reafon and matter of fact, ought to beHowHaving proceeded thusclafs are totype ordisregarded.expreifes his appreheniions too, left the infinite difcinclion of difeafes mould lead to a mode of practice equally diveriified. and have a very baneful effect upon materia medica and pre*Hescriptions.upon predifpufition to bad health, he avers that no perfon ever fuddenly became lick, but that gradually a predifpoktion was created by the agency of the exciting powers, and but of this preIn his remarksgrew the difeafe. Of this he gives examples in the phlogifexanthemata, wherein he fays, a high degree of excitement produces the difeafe, a lower predifpolition, and a dill lower health the means, therefore, conducive to the latter of thefe he thinks fo iimple, that the ufe of the common nofology is intirely fuperfeded. Proceeding upon this plan, he diftinguifhes local from univerfal both of which are confufedly claffcd together, in the differailmentsdifpofitiontic:;ent nofological arrangements. This led him to an examination of hemorrhagy, which, if attended in the beginning with phlogiftic diatheiis, he thought always becamecall in queftioneventually afthenic, and in this enquiry it was that he was induced to the exiftence of plethora, as a caufe of hemorrhagy, andreject:toin thealtogether the notion of a animal iyflem.vismtdicatrix naturae as an agentThis lirfl edition of the Elementa is an unfinished work, and comprehends the details of his doctrine no farther than thejlbtnk form of difeafes. Among thefe he there ranks hemorrhagy, efpecially menorrhagia, haemorrhois, epiftaxis, and apoplexy ; an arrangement /vhich he afterward c< nfidered wrong, and altered accordingly in the following editions, by placing them all in the afthenic Such, he tells us, was the train of ideas pallingreflecredclafs.inhismindasheupon the animal economyidge himfelf warrantedin;atonnthefe confederationsundettalnc\
