In a Work of this kind, it would have been desirable to have given a short account of the lives, and an abstract of the opinions, of the most eminent physicians. It was for a long time a favourite object of the editors to have thus inter-m caved the history of the progress of medicine; but the extent to which it might proceed, forbade the attempt. While, however, a short history of medicine and its different branches will be found under that title, many reasons induced them to offer, in separate articles, a short account of the most distinguished systems. They need not conceal that the strongest of these was, that the early occurrence in the alphabet of the more important ones would enable them to give more fully the opinions on which the practical remarks in this work are founded. With these views, we shall in their place mention the Boerhaavian, the Brunonian, the Cul-lenian, and the Stahlian, systems, enlarging chiefly on the second and third, as they now principally influence the practice of medicine.

Few physicians enjoyed, for so long a period, such unbounded, such unalloyed, reputation as Boerhaave. He was represented, for we are old enough to have conversed with his favourite pupils, as equally amiable in private life, and respectable in science: he first gave chemistry a philosophical systematic form, and reduced medicine to a science at least plausible, neat, and perspicuous. At his era, the chemical reveries of Van Helmont were yielding to the more abstract sciences; and, from unreal fancies, the change to the necessity of demonstration was so rapid, as to leave scarcely the vestige of an intermediate step. Calm, penetrating, and reflecting, Boerhaave could distinguish between the visionary theorist and the attentive observer; and, equally judicious, could appreciate the merits of each. We have no reason to think that he expected to be the founder of a sect; yet he proceeded with the caution of a veteran, and culled from each the flower which was to adorn his own parterre. Though Paracelsus had burnt the writings of Hippocrates and Galen in solemn state, yet they were not forgotten; and the wise observations of the Grecian sages formed the ground work of his system. The Galenic doctrine of humours he assimilated with wonderful address to his chemical doctrines, and gave them a specific character, founded on their chemical relations. The mechanical philosophy, then attracting universal attention, added to the fabric: the vessels were cones or cylinders; the fluids, consisting of various particles, adapted only to given apertures, were at times forcibly impelled and impacted in vessels to which they were not fitted, and consequently produced numerous complaints.

The whole of this doctrine was combined with so much precision, with such scientific skill, as highly to prepossess even the experienced observer. Each found his own opinions placed in a respectable view, illustrated by language elegant and perspicuous, and supported by collateral doctrines, which, in another situation, he would have rejected. The Galenist could not object to the elegant illustration of the various humours; the chemist saw. with surprise, that the works which his master had burnt, illustrated his favourite system; and the mechanical philosopher, probably, never suspected the very extensive application of doctrines which he had cherished exclusively for their own sake. In fact, Boerhaave's system was a selected one; and he has, of course, been styled an Eclectic.

We have engaged in this short comprehensive view, partly to account for the enthusiasm with which this system was received; for it must not be concealed, that, in treating of the properties and functions of a living body, he overlooked the principle of life, and the laws of a living organised machine. He seems to have seen his error, and in his later works he speaks, but still in the language of a sectary, of the 'inertia liquidinervosi.' The first decisive step in opposition to this mechanical pathology was taken by his own nephew; and this heresy is followed, apparently, with some reluctance, by Gau-bius, the pupil of Boerhaave.

Yet though we have spoken thus freely of his doctrines, we mean neither to depreciate the man nor his talents. He was far above the common race of mortals; and, with Newton almost alone, might be shown by angels as imitating their superior powers, and emulating their brighter intellectual acquisitions. When in different parts of this work also we speak disrespectfully of saponaceous aperients, of attenuants, and the other scions of the humoral pathology, or of the more rigorous demonstration of qualities and powers which refuse the trammels of mathematics, we must still profess an admiration of the talents of Boerhaave. Those who have contemplated the state of medicine, previous to his time, will see order rise from confusion, precision from vague analogy; in a word, science from doubtful unconnected facts.

The practitioners of the Boerhaavian school have, in general, been distinguished for patient attention and acute observation. They have not perhaps extended the bounds of medicine, but been contented to imitate their master, and his preceptors, Hippocrates and his successors. This was perhaps an error, and it resulted from the unbounded admiration they felt for Boerhaave. It was a very advantageous trait of Dr, Cullen's character, that he wished to raise his pupils into critics on himself. The writer of this article can add, that he received the most cordial assistance from the latter in a work, the leading principle of which was in opposition to one of Dr. Cullen's favourite doctrines.