only by reiterated conjectures and experiments that the discovery of truth could be attained. Convinced by the valuable discoveries which we owe to a great number of celebrated physicians, that it was possible to render medicine more generally and more certainly useful than it has yet been, he has, in consequence, attempted a new theory, which, being simple and founded solely upon facts, is preferable to all those that have hitherto been adopted. We recognise in it a man solely occupied with the care of instructing his readers, and placing them beyond the reach of error; he never proposes his opinions but with the greatest circumspection; and, far from palliating the defects of his theory, whenever he does not find it clear and evident, he points this out with a good faith which characterises his zeal for truth. But what in a particular manner raises him above those who have preceded him, is the exactness and precision with which he describes each kind of disease, and distinguishes the symptoms that properly belong to it from those which are merely accidental. No author has better pointed out the proximate causes of diseases, but he dwells only on those which are clear and evident; where this is not the case, he confines himself to facts, of which all his reasonings are merely the consequences. His curative method is always founded on the proximate cause; he points out with much prudence and judgment the particular powers of medicines; he explains with clearness their manner of acting, and the cases in which they are suitable, without losing himself in subtile reasonings or in too minute details. Hence, we are indebted to Dr Cullen for an improved theory, joined with much circumspection in the use of this theory, and with great attention to experience and observation, all which qualities render his Elements of Practical Medicine a work of the greatest utility."

A new edition of M. Bosquillon's translation was published at Paris so late as 1819 by M. De Lens, and employed by M. Recamier, Professor of Clinical

Medicine to the Faculty of Medicine, as a text-book for his lectures.

In Germany, two editions of a translation of Dr Cullen's First Lines into the German language was published at Leipzig during his lifetime. To the first, in 1778-80, was added an appendix exhibiting his systematic distribution of diseases; and the second, in 1789, was illustrated with notes chiefly derived from the French translation of M. Bosquillon.

In Italy, also, an edition was published, enriched with notes taken from the same source.

It seems not undeserving of remark, that, by means of M. Bosquillon's translation, containing, in the form of notes, large quotations from Dr Cullen's manuscript lectures on the Practice of Physic, and by means of the subsequent translations of these into German and Italian, the medical profession on the Continent of Europe possessed much greater facility of access to many of Dr Cullen's particular opinions than was enjoyed in his own country till the publication of his Works in

1827.

Of the introduction of Dr Cullen's First Lines into the North American States, his warmly attached pupil and friend, the late Dr Rush, gives the following account, in a letter dated Philadelphia, 16th September 1783:

"One of the severest taxes paid by our profession during the war, was occasioned by the want of a regular supply of books from Europe, by which means we are eight years behind you in everything. Your First Lines was almost the only new work that was smuggled into the country. Fortunately it fell into my hands. I took the liberty of writing

The

a preface to it, and of publishing it during the war. American edition had a rapid sale and a general circulation throughout the United States. It was read with peculiar attention by the physicians and surgeons of our army, and, in a few years, regulated in many things the practice of our hospitals. Thus, Sir, you see you have had a hand in the revolution, by contributing indirectly to save the lives of the officers and soldiers of the American army."

In a letter already given (vol. i. p. 652), which was written about a year after the preceding, Dr Rush says, "Your First Lines accompany population and government in every part of this Western world. An edition of your last volume is now in the press in this city, and will be published in a few days.”

Among the numerous tributes of respect which Dr Cullen received on the publication of his First Lines, there is one from a quarter whence it could have been little expected, that must have been peculiarly gratifying to his feelings. It is contained in the following passage of a letter (without date) from his former pupil Mr Joseph Ewart, at that time Chargé d'Affaires at the Court of Berlin, to his brother Mr John Ewart, who was then resident in Edinburgh.

"Tell Dr Cullen that all the editions of the First Lines have been translated into German as soon as they appeared, the last not excepted. I ought not to forget to mention, also, that I got a copy of the original from England a few months ago for the great La Grange, the first mathematician of the age, to whom I had given the former edition, and who considers it as the only classical book existing on the Practice of Physic, with the principles of which he is well acquainted, as he is with every other branch of science."

The distinct and comprehensive definitions and histories of diseases which the First Lines contained,

and the talent which they displayed for the accurate discrimination and simple generalization of the results of experience, were qualities which, in the perusal of the work, could not fail to attract the attention of such a mind as that of La Grange; and it seems reasonable to presume that it has been those qualities, so difficult to be imitated, which have so long secured for it the highest place among systems of physic. That Dr Cullen's First Lines should now begin to be regarded as, in many respects, unfit to represent the present improved state of the Practice of Physic, is a fate to which every systematic compend of practical knowledge, in a science so progressive in its nature as Medicine, must necessarily be subjected. He seems to have been himself fully aware of this, in the liberal and candid reflections which he makes on the system of his predecessor Dr Boerhaave.

"Whoever," says he, "will consider the merits of Dr Boerhaave, and can compare his system with that of former writers, must acknowledge that he was very justly esteemed, and gave a system which was at that time deservedly valued. But in the progress of an inquisitive and industrious age, it was not to be expected that any system should last so long as Boerhaave's has done. I apprehend that, in every branch of science with respect to which new facts are daily acquired, and these consequently giving occasion to new reflections which correct the principles formerly adopted, it is necessary, from time to time, to reform and renew the whole system, with all the additions and amendments which it has received and is then capable of. That at present this is requisite with regard to the science of Medicine, will, I believe, readily occur to every person who at all thinks for himself, and is acquainted with the systems which have hitherto prevailed."

Subsequently to the publication of his First Lines, Dr Cullen delivered his lectures on the Practice of Physic in the form of illustrative commentaries on the several paragraphs of that work. The arrangement pursued in both was in conformity with that laid down in his Synopsis of Nosology. The full account which has been already given of Dr Cullen's general doctrines in physiology, pathology, and therapeutics, supersedes the necessity of any lengthened exposition of his application of these to special pathology, or the consideration of particular diseases. But the very numerous and often repeated censures which have been passed on particular portions of the doctrines inculcated by him in the First Lines, too often by persons who have not had the industry to study his opinions, or have not duly comprehended them, render it proper, if not indispensably necessary, to take a slight review of his published writings and of his oral prelections on the Practice of Physic.

With whatever defects Dr Cullen's general definition of his class Pyrexia or of his order Febres may be conceived to be chargeable, every well-informed and unprejudiced mind will allow, that the history of the phenomena and progress of a febrile paroxysm, as given by him from the sixteenth to the twenty-third paragraphs of his First Lines, is, both in respect of the minute fidelity of the delineation and of the clearness and conciseness of the language in which it is portrayed, a perfect masterpiece and model of medical description.

The occasional occurrence in fevers, of congestion or accumulation of blood in some of the internal vis