stretches from disease to those differences among mankind which are known as the temperaments, and even to the changes which are effected in

of preservation had morbid conditions been left alone to the contingencies of art. One of the most obvious subordinate means is the privation of appetite in a vast proportion of diseases, that the indivi lual may avoid his habitual food This provision is strongly pronounced in all animals; and that it does not obtain equally in man is owing to the artificial nature of his habits.

As to the direct means which Nature employs for the removal of disease beyond the recuperative tendency appertaining to the properties of life, striking illustrations occur in the effusions of lymph, of serum, of mucus and of blood, which are set up in inflammatory diseases; of bile, perspiration, &c., in fevers, &c., and which contribute greatly towards their removal. In all diseases, during their increase or decline, there is a constant succession of pathological conditions, however nearly allied. When the changes are of a favorable nature, the vital properties and functions will ultimately attain that modification which results in a free production of the natural fluids, or effusions of serum, or of lymph, or pus, or blood. As soon as any of these products take place, they operate as depletory remedies, and hasten the favorable changes in which they originate, and especially so as the effusions proceed directly from the small vessels which are the instruments of disease. As these effusions, too, are Nature's ultimate effort at relief, we thus derive from her a valuable guide for our treatment of inflammations and fevers.

The tendency, therefore, of the vital conditions, when diseased, to return to a healthy state, and, in the progress of those favorable changes, to bring on results which hasten their complete restoration, is one of the most remarkable exemplifications of Design; since, without it, the whole human race, the entire animal kingdom, would become extinct. Our whole materia medica, as I

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plants by cultivation, by changes of climate, &c., and in animals by analogous influences. And here I have thought that I cannot do better than

have endeavored to show, extensively, in the Institutes of Medicine, does but establish new pathological conditions; but its several agents alter the morbid states in such ways as enable the properties of life to obey more readily their natural recuperative effort. The only difference, therefore, between the morbid states induced by the ordinary causes of disease, and the changes which arise from the action of remedial agents, is, that in one case the alteration is more profoundly and permanently made, while in the other it is of such a nature as to subside spontaneously.

The established laws of living beings are so full of provisions for the maintenance of the great ends of Creation, that we find Nature instituting morbid processes for the removal of evils of a very different nature from disease, whilst in the end she accomplishes the cure of the disease which she had instituted. Wounds, for instance, are an injury which Nature endeavors to repair, and they are, therefore, made the cause of inflammation, that the edges of the wound may be united by an effusion of lymph, and this effusion becomes a part of the natural cure of the inflammation. Again, a hard, irritating eschar, or a mortified part, is an evil to the adjacent tissues, and through a common law of the properties of life, it institutes an inflammatory action by which either is thrown off through the suppurative process, while the formation of pus is the natural cure. A bullet, or other solid substance, penetrating the organization, as the muscle of a limb, is an offending cause, and the irritation it produces brings about that pathological state of the vital conditions which constitutes inflammation. This form of disease, therefore, when thus produced, is a salutary process of Nature to get rid of the offending cause, and it must not be disturbed unless the offending cause be artificially removed. The steps in the process are very curious. Suppura

to illustrate this subject by a brief analysis of the temperaments of mankind; and for this purpose I will be indebted to a page which I have alrea

tion takes place on all sides of the foreign object, attended by ulceration, and absorption of the living parts which intervene between the foreign substance and the surface of the body. But, on all other sides, a little beyond the foreign body, coagulable lymph, instead of pus, is deposited, by which the cellular tissue is agglutinated, and the purulent matter thus prevented from diffusing itself through the adjacent parts. Finally the foreign body reaches the surface, and is expelled, and Nature then institutes the eschar by which the opening is healed. In the mean time the morbid process is made, progressively, the means of its own cure by the effusion of pus and lymph.

But, another curious expedient of Nature, and by which she endeavors to avoid the necessity of a morbid process for her own relief, consists in the frequent production of cysts or sacs around the foreign body, especially if it happen to be smooth and free from irritating angles, like bullets. In these cases a slight inflammation is excited, and an effusion of coagulable lymph, instead of pus, takes place and results in the cyst or sac; and this new formation, being but imperfectly endowed with vital properties, is not offended by the presence of the foreign body. The little inflammation originally produced is overcome by the effusion.

No wonder, therefore, that when physiology was less understood, Van Helmont, Stahl, and others, should have supposed that the healthy and morbid actions are under the guidance of an intelligent Agent.

I have endeavored to illustrate, in a summary manner, in the Institutes of Medicine, (page 679-681,) the whole philosophy that is ever concerned in the production and cure of diseases, in an example supplied by the Seton. See, also, my Materia Medica and Therapeutics, p. 174-181.

dy placed before the world, but too recently, however, to have engaged your attention.

The temperaments may be regarded as embracing the innate as well as acquired peculiarities of constitution; for although the latter depend upon causes that are relative alone to the individual, the former or innate constitution has been brought about, at some anterior generation, by the physical agencies of life. This is the true temperament, and belongs to masses of mankind.

Idiosyncrasy is only a variety of temperament and constitution, and like those, therefore, depends upon some peculiar modification of the properties of life, especially irritability; but only so in relation to a very few particular agents. It is peculiar to individuals, rather rare, and may be hereditary or acquired. This peculiarity is not unfrequently the cause of the favorable or deleterious effects of certain remedial agents, of certain kinds of food, &c. We see the important principle illustrated every day, every hour. Here is a subject who is salivated by the external application of a few grains of mercurial ointment, and in whom various diseases may be speedily extinguished by this simple use of the remedy. But here is another, in whom the internal ad

ministration of an ounce of calomel may produce no constitutional result, and make no impression upon disease. Or, it may be in another case of extreme susceptibility to the action of mercury, that the agent always displays the effects of a profound poison, aggravating fever and other affections, or, in the absence of disease, greatly deranging all the functions of life. Most men are poisoned by the slightest contact with the Rhus vernix; but now and then an individual handles it with impunity. Muscles and some other animals are always poisonous when eaten by some people, though generally good articles of food.

Constitution comprehends all the peculiarities of the individual: the temperament, idiosyncrasy, conditions relative to age, sex, habits, &c. It is, therefore, liable to many variations at all periods of life. The prevailing characteristics of each of the elements may remain, but yet so modified, that what is known as constitution may be "broken down."

The same principle is concerned throughout, whether in respect to constitution, temperament, or idiosyncrasy. It is the same as prevails habitually in respect to the naturally modified irritability of different organs in man, and in all animals, and in plants; that which renders the pro