discoveries, that his name is important in medical history. His
arrangement and classification of the different branches of medicine
are interesting as representing the attitude of the medical profession
towards these various branches at that time.

"In the first place we consider Life; then Health, afterwards Diseases;
and lastly their several Remedies.

"Health the first general branch of Physic in our Institutions is termed
Physiology, or the Animal Oeconomy; demonstrating the several Parts of
the human Body, with their Mechanism and Actions.

"The second branch of Physic is called Pathology, treating of Diseases,
their Differences, Causes and Effects, or Symptoms; by which the human
Body is known to vary from its healthy state.

"The third part of Physic is termed Semiotica, which shows the Signs
distinguishing between sickness and Health, Diseases and their Causes
in the human Body; it also imports the State and Degrees of Health and
Diseases, and presages their future Events.

"The fourth general branch of Physic is termed Hygiene, or Prophylaxis.

"The fifth and last part of Physic is called Therapeutica; which
instructs us in the Nature, Preparation and uses of the Materia Medica;
and the methods of applying the same, in order to cure Diseases and
restore lost Health."(1)

From this we may gather that his general view of medicine was not unlike
that taken at the present time.

Boerhaave's doctrines were arranged into a "system" by Friedrich
Hoffmann, of Halle (1660-1742), this system having the merit of being
simple and more easily comprehended than many others. In this system
forces were considered inherent in matter, being expressed as mechanical
movements, and determined by mass, number, and weight. Similarly, forces
express themselves in the body by movement, contraction, and relaxation,
etc., and life itself is movement, "particularly movement of the
heart." Life and death are, therefore, mechanical phenomena, health is
determined by regularly recurring movements, and disease by irregularity
of them. The body is simply a large hydraulic machine, controlled by
"the aether" or "sensitive soul," and the chief centre of this soul lies
in the medulla.

In the practical application of medicines to diseases Hoffman used
simple remedies, frequently with happy results, for whatever the
medical man's theory may be he seldom has the temerity to follow it out
logically, and use the remedies indicated by hi