Zoonomia, Vol. II by Erasmus Darwin

Page 1 of 395

ZOONOMIA;

OR,

THE LAWS

ORGANIC LIFE.

VOL. II.

_By ERASMUS DARWIN, M.D. F.R.S._

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, Lucentemque globum lunae, titaniaque astra, Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.--VIRG. Aen. vi.

Earth, on whose lap a thousand nations tread, And Ocean, brooding his prolific bed, Night's changeful orb, blue pole, and silvery zones, Where other worlds encircle other suns, One Mind inhabits, one diffusive Soul Wields the large limbs, and mingles with the whole.

London: Printed for. J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard. 1796.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

ZOONOMIA;

OR,

THE LAWS OF ORGANIC LIFE.

PART II.

CONTAINING

A CATALOGUE OF DISEASES

DISTRIBUTED INTO

NATURAL CLASSES ACCORDING TO THEIR PROXIMATE CAUSES,

WITH THEIR

SUBSEQUENT ORDERS, GENERA, AND SPECIES,

AND WITH

THEIR METHODS OF CURE.

* * * * *

Haec, ut potero, explicabo; nec tamen, quasi Pythius Apollo, certa ut sint et fixa, quae dixero; sed ut Homunculus unus e multis probabiliora conjectura sequens.--CIC. TUSC. DISP. l. 1. 9.

* * * * *

PREFACE.

All diseases originate in the exuberance, deficiency, or retrograde action, of the faculties of the sensorium, as their proximate cause; and consist in the disordered motions of the fibres of the body, as the proximate effect of the exertions of those disordered faculties.

The sensorium possesses four distinct powers, or faculties, which are occasionally exerted, and produce all the motions of the fibrous parts of the body; these are the faculties of producing fibrous motions in consequence of irritation which is excited by external bodies; in consequence of sensation which is excited by pleasure or pain; in consequence of volition which is excited by desire or aversion; and in consequence of association which is excited by other fibrous motions. We are hence supplied with four natural classes of diseases derived from their proximate causes; which we shall term those of irritation, those of sensation, those of volition, and those of association.

In the subsequent classification of diseases I have not adhered to the methods of any of those, who have preceded me; the principal of whom are the great names of Sauvages and Cullen; but have nevertheless availed myself, as much as I could, of their definitions and distinctions.

The essential characteristic of a disease consists in its proximate cause, as is well observed by Doctor Cullen, in his Nosologia Methodica, T. ii. Prolegom. p. xxix. Similitudo quidem morborum in similitudine causae eorum proximae, qualiscunque sit, revera consistit. I have taken the proximate cause for the classic character. The characters of the orders are taken from the excess, or deficiency, or retrograde action, or other properties of the proximate cause. The genus is generally derived from the proximate effect. And the species generally from the locality of the disease in the system.

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