an that of any other equal part, is vastly less than the
affection or diathesis diffused over the whole body. The exciting or
hurtful causes which produce these diseases, by no means exert their
whole power upon a small portion of the superficial vessels of the
lungs, and leave the rest untouched; on the contrary, they affect
exery part of the system, and the whole body partakes of the morbid
change. Indeed the general or universal affection; viz. a sense of
heaviness and fullness, uneasy sleep, and other symptoms of increased
excitement, are commonly perceived some time before the pain of the
thorax becomes sensible. The remedies which remove the disease; viz.
venesection, abstaining from animal food, and every mode of
debilitating, do not exert their whole efficacy on an inflamed
portion of the lungs; for by removing the affection of the lungs we
should go but a little way towards removing the disease.

Among local diseases we may enumerate wounds, or solutions of the
continuity of the part, bruises, fractures, inflammations from local
irritation, &c. Hence it is evident that the treatment of general
diseases is the province of the physician; and of local ones of the
surgeon. But there are some general diseases which are apt to
degenerate into local, and therefore require the attention both of
the physician and the surgeon. Among these we may reckon suppuration
and gangrene, sphacelus, and some others.

The first class, or general diseases, may be divided into two orders;
sthenic, and asthenic. The asthenic order may be subdivided into two
genera; viz. diseases of direct debility, and diseases of indirect
debility; for debility, according to the system I am explaining, is
that relaxed or atonic state of the system which accompanies a
deficient action of the stimulant or exciting powers; and this
deficient action may arise immediately from the partial or too
sparing application of the exciting powers; the excitability or
capacity of the system to receive their actions, being unaffected or
sufficiently abundant; or it may arise from the excitability being
exhausted, by the violent or long continued action of the exciting
powers.

This arrangement of diseases, which naturally follows from the
fundamental principles of the doctrine, and which is guided by the
state and degree of excitement, is widely different from that of
former nosologists, who have arranged or classed them according to
symptoms, which have already