Again: Dr. Brown speaks of indirect and direct debility, of the two states of exhausted and accumulated irritability. The gaol fever is allowed to be an instance of the former, and the person, secluded from light and air, of the latter. Yet, did Dr. Brown never see (we believe he never did) in the gaol fever, inordinate stimuli fatal by their excess? Did he never see phlegmonic inflammation sometimes supervene? To the angina maligna, too, a very similar disease, the inflammatory angina sometimes succeeds from too violent and long continued stimuli. How, however, in the gaol fever, one of his own instances, is the excitability exhausted by excess of stimuli? Every previous cause, every concomitant circumstance, has a tendency totally different. In this and the other instance of indirect debility, we see only the powers of life gradually exhausting, in a certain degree to be roused with augmented violence by stimuli; but, after a certain period, incapable of any excitement: while even the effects of stimuli, though apparently for a time successful, often contribute to destroy the remaining portion of excitability. The difference of the two cases consists in this only, that the excitability in the latter is only accumulated; but in the former, by the debilitating power of the fever, added to that from the confinement, in a great measure destroyed, or at least so far diminished as to be very generally irrecoverable.

A striking instance of accumulated excitability occurred in that singularly intrepid exertion of captain Bligh, when he crossed the Pacific in a small boat, with a very inconsiderable stock of provisions. On reaching Timor, one of his crew died of an inflammatory fever. Had these men after their voyage been thrown into a loathsome prison, or an infected hospital, would they have escaped? We know they would not, for similar instances have occurred; yet in these we might in vain look for the stimuli by which the excitability had been exhausted.

A consequence of this doctrine must be, that every medicine stimulates; and the difference between what are styled stimulants and sedatives is, that the latter are not sufficiently stimulating. This, however, must soon become a verbal controversy. The oxygen of the atmosphere stimulates the lungs, and hence the whole system; but if the oxygen is deficient, the stimulus is abstracted, and the machine no longer urged on. Yet this is not the only stimulus; if we abstract oxygen, we may supply an additional stimulus by warmth: abstract warmth, also, and the passions may supply its place. Without all these exciting powers, we need not despair; we have brandy, laudanum, and aether. It is sufficient to state this reasoning, which, on Brunonian principles, is fair, to show its fallacy. Azote and hy-drocarbonate, when breathed without dilution, immediately kill. Is this from deficient or excessive stimulus ? If from the former, it differs in no degree from a sedative: if from excessive stimulus exhausting excitability, we can only say that the existence of the previous stimulus is gratuitous; and we have long since learnt, that, quod verbo dicitur, verbo negare sat est. If no stimulus appears, we cannot place sufficient confidence in any assertion to believe that it exists.

But these are harmless speculations. When we find them applied to practice, humanity shudders at the dangerous tendency of many of these doctrines. If we can trust reports, their application has been very extensively injurious. As the trammels of a system are every where conspicuous, so diseases are supposed to be either sthenic or asthenic.those arranged under the former class are, peripneumonia, phrenitis, variola, rubeola, ery-sipelas, rheumatism, cynanche tonsillaris, catarrhus, sy-nocha, scarlatina,mania,pervigilium,and. obesitas. The asthenic diseases are, macies, inquietudo, eruptio scabi-osa, diabetes lenior, rachitis, menstruorum cessatio sup-pressio et retentio, moenorrhaa, epistaxis, haemorrhois, sitis vomitus et indigestio cum affinibus alimentarii ca-nalis morbis, pueriles affectus scil. vermes et tabes, dy-senteria et cholera, scorbutus, hysteria levior, rheuma-talgia, tussis asthenica, pertussis, cystirrhaea, podagra validiorum et imbeciliorum, asthma, spasma, anasarca, colicodynia, dyspepsodynia, hysteria gravior hypochondriasis, hydrops, epilepsia, paralysis, apoplexia, trismus, tetanus, intermittentes, dysenteria et colica gravior, synochus, typhus simplex, cynanche gangrenosa, variola confluens, typhus, pestilens et pestis. The local diseases follow, among which we see with some surprise, the internal inflammations of the abdomen, abortion, and difficult births. Deep wounds, suppuration, pustula, anthrax, bubo, gangrene, sphacelus, scrofulous tumours, and scirrhus, may with more propriety be considered as local diseases, yet these often require general methods of treatment.

The cure is as simple as the arrangement. Bleeding, low diet, and purging, cure the sthenic diseases; stimuli, of different kinds and degrees, the asthenic. Is it surprising then that this system should have its admirers? The labour of study is at once abridged. The works of Galen and his followers may be again burnt in solemn state; and the degree of strength or debility registered on a scale, may be at once attacked by the appropriate weapon. Sad is the history which must follow. The victims of the yellow fever in the West Indies were often laid low after full doses of Madeira, bark, and laudanum. We have seen the hectics raised into a destructive flame by similar means; and the typhus fever aggravated by equally undistinguishing management.

We cannot pursue the list minutely, but shall take an instance or two from each class. Peripneumony is a sthenic disease, and is attacked, as usual, by bleeding and purging. If this plan be followed, the fever is mitigated, but the affection of the breast remains the same. For this, the only salutary discharge is the expectoration, which should be conducted with care. Of this discharge Dr. Brown takes no notice; and, unfortunately, active purging will not only supersede, but prevent it: and we have no hesitation in saying, that few patients treated in this way would survive. We might notice also scarlatina and erysipelas. Either, treated by active bleeding and purging, would soon prove fatal. The treatment proposed for the latter may succeed in Scotland, but in this metropolis would at once sink the patient irrecoverably. Once more: obesity is a disease to be cured by bleeding and purging. In fact, there is no state of the system in which these evacuations are borne with so little advantage. The truly inflammatory habit is the strong, thin, firm, muscular highlander, or the English mountaineer. The opposite state is the irritable, hysteric female, generally plump, but weak, and soon sunk by discharges.