prehending fortuitous læsions or deformities. But this system is, in common with all others that have preceded it, obnoxious in the first place to similar objections, viz. the frequent difficulty, nay occasional impossibility, of predicating by any certain signs the particular function which was first the subject of disorder; and more especially since one function cannot well take on a deranged action, without at the same time, or in short succession, deranging several others. Allowing, for example, that the word asthma stands as a proper cognomen for the internal condition it professes to point out, how shall we with any propriety class it as an affection either of the respiratory or digestive function, till we are agreed as to the manner in which the malady is engendered, or till we have settled the disputed point whether it be one of sympathy with the first passages, or whether it be inherently, absolutely, and invariably a pulmonary, or, in other words, a respiratory de rangement. 216. But, further, these physiological systems or schemes of arrangement have another very material inconvenience to contend with, since, for the sake of following functions, they necessarily separate by very wide gaps disorders of the same organs and parts; for while,' as the learned author whose system we now more particularly advert to, himself admits, 'inflammation of the stomach and bowels belong as inflammatory affections to one class, indigestion and cholera, though disorders of the same organs, must necessarily from their nature be ranged under another.' 217. These objections apply mainly to classification; the nomenclature from symptoms, or supposed causes, must necessarily be open to the same sources of error in this as in every other invention of the nosologist to comprise morbid states under a few leading divisions, according to their points of resemblance. 218. By some individuals, who have seen the difficulties connected with the formation of schemes and classifications in the abstract way above referred to, an anatomical plan of procedure has been proposed, such as taking the human body and commencing with any given portion of it, proceeding upwards or downwards as we shall have fixed upon any starting point. But unfortunately, as it has elsewhere been remarked, medical and anotomical science do not go hand in hand through all the mazes of morbid being; or at any rate sometimes one and sometimes the other will be lost in shade as the eye of the observer aims at pursuing them through all their intricate walks and meanderings. Epilepsy, for instance, in an anatomical scheme of classification would be put down as a disorder of the head; but who that has not a disorder in his own head does not know, that this manifestation of morbid state at times arises from deranged conditions of parts very different from the head? And whether, when we take anatomical topography for our guide, should we be right in classing gout, when we had got to the head, or the stomach, or the liver, or defer it till we had traced our course of descriptive affection down as far as the great toe? 219. Although then, as will immediately be seen, we shall select a plan of arrangement of an artificial or abstract kind, when we come to trace the several items of disordered being; we wish to impress on our readers, and on students of medicine generally, that the classifier and namer of diseases is very differently circumstanced from the individual who undertakes to invent classes and orders for the designation and distribution of the particulars belonging to the science of natural history. 220. Plater, in his Praxis Medica, published in 1602, was the first distinctly to indicate the possibility of thus arranging diseases, and the celebrated Sydenham almost simultaneously conceived the same design; but to Sauvages are we indebted for the primary elaboration of a systematic arrangement, founded upon the intimations of the above-named individuals. The celebrated Linnæus followed in the same track, and Vogel followed Linnæus. Sagar again enlarged and modified the system of Sauvages into one of his own. Cullen's, which is the system we shall adopt, for reasons immediately to be given, succeeded to that of Vogel. M'Bride and Crichton proposed improvements upon the Culienian synopses, and Dr. Darwin's system of nosology is entirely novel. Dr. Parr subsequently made an attempt, under the feeling that the natural order of the diseases had been too much disregarded by his predecessors; and Dr. Mason Good, as we have above intimated, has presented a labored and most ingenious classification, founded on physiological principles. 221. We shall only be able to find room for the heads or leading divisions of these several schemes, with the exception of that invented by Dr. Cullen, whose classification we shall transcribe through all its details, as it is the system we shall adopt in the present article; and we shall do this first, because we think the definitions of Dr. Cullen, are the most faithful that have been given; secondly, because its terminology, however open to objection in many of its particulars, harmonises more than any other with the language which is still generally employed in most schools of medicine in this country; and lastly, because by recognising the three leading principles of the animal economy-circulation, sensation, and absorption, his system is perhaps as physiologically accurate as it is possible for one to be constructed. The great defect of Dr. Cullen (we speak now upon the assumption of schemes being admissible) is the introduction of the class locales; for, besides that objections might be urged against the propriety of thus separating general from topical disorders, many of the affections which are comprised among the local are unequivocally of general or systematic origin; but on this head we shall have to offer another intimation or two in our running commentary on the nosology, to which we shall proceed after first, as it has been proposed, presenting the general heads of the systems above referred to. Of these systems, Dr. Good will fall the last in order, and to its transcription we shall take the liberty of adding a long extract from his System of Nosology, bearing upon a most important part of the medical science, we mean the nomenclature. It cannot be expected that reformations, such as Dr. Good contemplates, will be all at once 3. Cachexia. 4. Dolores. 5. Fluxus. 6. Suppressiones. 7. Spasmi. 9. Debilitates. 10. Exanthemata. 11. Phlegmasiæ. 12. Febres. 13. Vesaniæ. The classes and orders of M'Bride. Class I. Universal diseases. Order 1. Fevers. 2. Inflammations. 3. Fluxes. 4. Painful diseases. 5. Spasmodic diseases. 6. Weaknesses or privation. Class II. Local diseases. 2. Of the external senses. 3. Of the appetites. 4. Of the secretions and excretions. 5. Impeding different actions. 6. Of the external habit. 7. Dislocations. 8. Solutions of continuity. Class III. Serual diseases. 2. Local proper to men. 3. General proper to women. 4. Local proper to women. Class IV. Infantile diseases. Order 1. General. 2. Local. VOL. XIV. 6. Eccritica. 7. Tychica, which includes fortuitous læsions, and deformities. 222. We now present our readers with the following promised extract from the ingenious framer of the last of the above schemes, and we recommend the book itself from which we extract it to the attention of the medical student as full both of literary and practical information. We recommend at the same time, to the literary student of medicine, Dr. Young's Introduction to Medical Literature, which beside being a digest of anatomical, physiological, and therapeutical knowledge, contains also another indication of a nosological scheme founded on the principles of physiology, or natural function. 223. In the hope, says Dr. Good, of giving some degree of improvement to the medical vocabulary, as far as he may have occasion to employ it, the author has endeavoured to guide himself by the following general rules:-First, a strict adherence to Greek and Latin terms alone. Secondly, a use of as few technical terms as possible, and consequently a forbearance from all synonyms. Thirdly, a simplification of terms, as far as it can be done without violence or affectation, both in their radical structure and composition. Fourthly, an individuality and precision of sense in their respective use. 224 (1). As the science of medicine is open to all ages and nations, it would be highly beneficial, if it could be accomplished, that its technology should be confined to one alone of the many tongues from which it is at present derived. No modern tongue, however, would be D allowed such a precedency; and, were it to be granted, there is no none so richly endowed with distinct names for diseases as to enable it to specificate every complaint of which a system of nosology is expected to treat. Dr. Macbride has made a trial of our own tongue, and has completely failed; for the generic terms, under several of his orders, are entirely exotic, and under most of them very considerably so, being partly Greek, partly Latin, and partly English, uncouthly mixed together for the sake of convenience, like foreigners from all countries at a Hamburg hotel. 225. Our choice, therefore, is limited to the Greek and Latin, which have for ages maintained so equal a sway in the province of medicine, that they must still be allowed to exercise a joint control. It is a singular fact, that the Greek has furnished us with by far the greater aumber of terms that distinguish the higher divisions of systematic nosology, the classes, orders, and genera; and the Latin those employed to indicate the species and varieties. The systems of Linnæus and Darwin offer, perhaps, the only exception to this remark; for here we meet with attempts to use the Latin tongue alone, or at least to give it a considerable preponderancy. These examples, however, have not been followed, and are not likely to be so. The greater flexibility, indeed, and facility of combination belonging to the Greek has, on the contrary, induced almost all other nosologists, as well as almost all other men of science, to turn to it for assistance far more frequently than to the Latin. The author has availed himself of this general taste; and, by an occasional revival of terms which ought never to have been dropped, has been able so far to simplify the nomenclature of his classes, orders, and genera, as to render them exclusively Greek; and consequently to take his leave, thus far, of all other languages whatever. The changes introduced for this purpose are by no means numerous, and will in no instance, as he trusts, betray affectation or coercion. His authorities will usually be found in Celsus or Galen, who have carefully handed down to us the distinctive terms both of the earlier and the later schools of Greece; and, if at any time he has had occasion to wander farther, he has usually supplied himself from Aetius, Cælius Aurelianus, Dioscorides, or Aristotle. The sources, however, from which he has drawn, are in every case indicated, and, he ventures to hope, will be generally approved. Concerning the specific names he has been less scrupulous; and has allowed those to stand, whether Greek or Latin, that are already in most common use; or has drawn from either language such as may most fitly express the essential character, wherever such character can be traced out. Yet even here he has never wandered from the Greek farther than into the Latin. 226. (2). The machinery of every art or science becomes simpler, and its auxiliary powers fewer and less needed, as it advances towards perfection. It is the same with their technology. While we are but loosely acquainted with the principles of an art we speak of them with circumlocution, and employ more words than are necessary, because we have none that will come immediately to the point. As we grow more expert we learn to make a selection; we give to many of them a greater degree of force and pre cision; and separate those that are thus rendered of real value from the leather and prunello the heavy outside show of useless and unmeaning terms with which they are associated; and thus gain in time as well as in power. In unison with these ideas the author, as soon as he has pitched upon a word that will best answer his purpose, will be found, as he hopes, to adhere to it wherever he has had occasion to advert to the same idea, without indulging in any play of synonyms, or different terms possessing the same or nearly the same meaning. Marisca and hæmorrhois have been equally employed by medical writers to distinguish the disease which we call vernacularly piles. The first is a Latin term, and refers to the tubercles of the disease, and the second a Greek, and refers to a discharge of blood which occasionally issues from them. As commonly used they are direct synonyms notwithstanding this difference of radical meaning, and either might answer the purpose; the diversity of the disease being pointed out by distinctive adjuncts, as cæca, mucosa, or cruenta. Sauvages and Sagar, however, have employed both; but have labored to establish a difference, without having succeeded even in their own judgment. So that, in these writers, we have one and the same disease described under two distinct genera in distinct classes; the first occurring in Sauvages under class i. ord. v. entitled, vitia, cystides: the other under class iv. ord. ii. entitled fluxus, alvifluvus, and introduced with this remark, 'hæmorrhoides vero nihil aliud sunt quam mariscæ, gazæ apud Aristotelem.' In the present system marisca is alone retained; and the author has preferred it to hæmorrhois, first, because hemorrhage is only a symptom that characterises a peculiar species, or rather, perhaps, a variety of the disease; and next, because hæmorrhois, or rather hæmorrhoidæ (aμoppoida), was employed among the Greeks, as well vulgarly as professionally, in a much wider sense than that of modern times, and imported flux of blood from the vagina, as well as from the anus; and, in fact, from any part of the body, when produced by congestion and consequent dilatation of the mouths of the bleeding vessels, which were supposed in every instance to be veins. So Celsus, Tertium vitium est, ora venarum tanquam capitulis quibuscum surgentia quæ sæpe sanguinem fundunt: aμoppoidas, Græci vocant. Idque etiam in ore vulvæ fæminarum incidere consuevit.' To the same effect Hippocrates, Lib. de Morb. Mulier. Galen uses it in a still wider extent, De Morbis Vulgaribus: and hence the woman with an issue of blood in St. Matthew, ch. ix. 20, is termed in the Greek text γυνη αιμορουσα. Gaza (yača), the term used by Aristotle, would have answered as well as marisca, but that it is less common in the present day, and an exotic term even in the Greek. Hesychius calls it a Persian word, and Scaliger coincides with him; translating it, thesaurus, reditus, tributus,' 'a treasury, or place of deposit or accumulation, chiefly of tri bute or taxes. It is rather an Arabic than a Persian term, though both countries use it under different inflexions. The Arabic root is khazi, 'a blush or ruddy flush,' whether from fulness, shame, or modesty; whence the verb khaza, to produce blushes, erubescence, or suffusion;' and hence khazan in Persian signifies autumn, or the season of fulness and erubescence;' while khazain in Arabic is a garner, treasury, or repository for the fulness of the autumnal months;' literally cella, cellula, gaza, or gazophylacia, as explained by Hesychius. reason to believe that the auxiliary parts of every compound term, not only in medical technology, but through the whole range of the Greek tongue, had, when first employed, distinct and definite meanings, and limited the radicals, with which they were associated, to peculiar modifications of a common idea. To these meanings we can still trace many of them, though the greater number, like most of the elements in the Chinese characters, have passed through so many changes, that it is difficult, and in some instances perhaps impossible, to follow up the analysis to their original sources. From the novelty of the subject the author has, perhaps, a fair claim upon the reader's indulgence; the enquiry, however, is worthy of being carried much farther than he has time or limits to pursue it; and he hopes, and has reason to believe, that it will be thus extended, before long, by a friend, who has far more competency for the purpose than he can pretend to. 227. Vogel and Plenck are overloaded with synonymous terms, or what may, for common purposes, be so regarded; and perpetually aiming, like Sauvages, in the preceding instance, to discover a distinction where none exists, they have multiplied their list of diseases, as we have already seen, almost without number. The discrimination of Cullen has here been employed to the highest advantage, and is entitled to the thanks of every one. Celsus is in this respect 231. The suffixes employed in medical techpeculiarly correct; he adheres to the best technology are more numerous than the prefixes, nical term supplied by his own tongue; and, and the following is a list of those in most comthough he carefully gives us its Greek synonym, mon use :— he never changes it for any other term, whether Greek or Latin. 228. (3). In improving the technology of an art or science it seeins of great importance not only that all unnecessary terms should be banished, but that those retained should be simplified and abbreviated as much as may be without injuring their force or precision. Nothing can be more repulsive to the eye of a learner, or more inconvenient to the memory of an adept, than the long cacophonous compounds with which the science of nosology has been loaded by several German writers; such as the pothopatridalgia of Zwinger, for which, to the consolation of every one's lips and ears, Nenter auspiciously invented nostalgia; the ancyloblepharon, hydrenterocele, and others already noticed of Vogel, for which it is scarcely worth while to look for better to supply their place, as they import mere shadows of real diseases; and such specific epithets as spondylexarthreticus and hydrocatarrhophicus, employed in the nosology of Plouquet, but far more likely to produce than to remove confusion. To this point the author has endeavoured to keep his eye steadily directed; he has avoided compound terms as much as possible; and, when compelled to have recourse to them, has aimed at restraining them within compass. 229. Much of the character of words in respect to dimensions and euphony, as well as to precision, depends upon the common prefixes and suffixes which it is occasionally found necessary to employ; and which in some branches of science, and especially in that of chemistry, create and regulate considerably more than half their nomenclature. 230. This subject opens a wide field, though the consideration of it, for the present, must be confined to a very narrow compass. It is altogether new, not only to medicine, but, as far as the author is acquainted, to Greek philology; at east, after an extensive enquiry, he has not been able to obtain any assistance from books professerlly devoted to it. There seems much Greek Latin Agra algia αγρα ασμα ασμός εσμός ismus ισμός osma οσμα κηλη κοπος odes Osis rhagia figo ula illa ularis illaris osus. εσις στις ωδης ωσις ραγια Dola too frequently. Some of them however may be suppressed, as synonyms or duplicates of others; while it should be a rule never to employ any one of the remainder but when absolutely neces sary to distinguish the compound into which it enters from the root itself, or from another compound derived from the same root, by the addition of an idea to which it is uniformly restricted. 234. Algia, copus, and odyne, are direct synonyms; to which may also be added agra, for, though of a somewhat different radical meaning, it is commonly superadded, like all the three former, to express the general idea of pain or ache. And hence, very much to the perplexity of the learner and the incumbrance of the technical vocabulary, we have cephal-algia for head-ache, gastr-odyne for belly-ache, chiragra and pod-agra for gout-ache in the hand or foot. And, worse than this, we have ost-algia, ost-odynia, ost-agra, and osto-copus, to signity one and the same affection of the bones. Now it may be necessary to retain algia, which is perhaps the most popular of the whole, but we should as far as possible banish all the rest; and with the exception of agra in the single instance of pod-agra, which cannot readily be dismissed, none of the others will be met with in the course of the ensuing arrangement. Parodynia will indeed be found, but in this case odynia is the root itself. impetuous or violent action' The literal rendering of tepat is 'feror impetù,' and that of rng is, temerarius, audax, præceps periculorum.' While the direct origin of igo betrays itself in all its compounds, for vertigo (deriving igo from ago) is literally rotatory motion or dizziness;' serpigo, 'serpentine motion or course,' peculiarly describing a particular modification of herpetic eruption to which the term serpigo is applied. 236. Iasis, and oma, convey different ideas as issuing from different radicals. Iasis ('aoç) is literally sanatio, from 'taouai, 'sano, medeor,' and hence necessarily imports, in composition, medendus,' or 'ad sanationem spectans.' Oma ('wua) is as obviously an inflection of 'woc, crudus, ferus, imperfectus,' as is its real meaning in sarc-oma, distinctly crude, wild, imperfect flesh 'ather-oma, 'crude, incocted pulp or pap.' But if oma be preceded by the letters pt, as in ptoma (πrwμa) it is then derived from πT, procido,' and constantly imports procidence or prolapse; as in pro-ptoma, 'a prolapse of any part;' archo-ptoma, a prolapse of the anus.' This is sometimes written ptosis, as in colpoptosis, a prolapse of the vagina;' hysteroptosis, 'a prolapse of the uterus:' but for the sake of perspicuity, and especially to the learner, one mode only ought to be adhered to, and perhaps the first is the best. 237. Asma (aoua) is strictly 'incantamen235. Esis, osis, itis, oma, and iasis, have been tum,' enchantment, incantation; and, in a employed perhaps for ages, and several of them looser sense, possession, seizure. Osma, asmus, very generally throughout the Greek tongue, as esmus, and ismus, are mere varieties of asma; mere terminations, without any direct reference and that they were at first intended to denote this to their origins and probably without a recol- idea we may judge from the terms phantasma, lection or belief that they have any significant enthusiasmus, phricasmus, marasmus, phrenisorigins, or that those origins can be traced: in mus, priapismus. It became long afterwards a which case they would become simple terminating terminal member of tenesmus, rheumatismus, synonyms, and, in the abbreviating aim of a ptyalismus, when the original sense was nearly technical nomenclature, ought to follow the fate or altogether lost sight of. And since this of the generality of the preceding list. Some period the entire group have been employed not of them, indeed, can well be spared; but acci- only so generally, but in such a multiplicity of dent, or a cause not easy to be explained, has senses, that we can neither banish them nor degiven a peculiar and useful meaning to others, fine them; whence, like esis and osis, they must though very different from their radical sense, and remain to be had recourse to as mere final these may be advantageously retained. The adjuncts whenever necessary, though the less first three are probably derived from & or its frequently employed the better. different compounds, and together with the Latin term igo, which is perhaps a corruption of ago, mply the common idea of ago, mitto,'' motion, action, or putting forth,' and consequently, in medical combination, of morbid motion or action.' Esis (to) is a direct derivative from Ew, as is obvious in paresis, literally submissio,' 'remissio,' 'laxatio,' 'restraint or inability' of moving or putting forth;' whence by Aretæus, and various other Greek writers, it is used synonymously with paralysis. We meet with the same word and the same radical idea in proesis, synesis, and other compounds of the same root. Osis (ωσις or «σις) descends in like manner from u, 'sum,' itself a derivative of tw; whence osia or ousia (wola or sota) is literally ens, essentia, substantia,' the thing put forth in being, action, or motion.' Itis (ng) is as clearly an immediate derivation from eua; itself, like the preceding, a ramification from E, and imports, not merely action, but, when strictly true to itself, 238. It is clear, then, as well from actual analysis as from the genius of the Greek tongue itself, that each of these terminations had a distinct signification when first introduced; although it is equally clear that most of them have for some centuries been employed loosely and indiscriminately as mere final syllables. In many instances none of them are wanted; and in all such cases they ought, unquestionably, to be dropped as redundant; and, occasionally, they have been so. Thus the myopiasis of Vogel is advantageously shortened by Plenck to myopia, as at first written by Linnæus; and, for the same reason, mydriasis ought to have been written mydria. So chlorosis, if it were to be formed in the present day, would be chloria, and exoneirosis, exoneiria. Many of the terms introduced by Dr. Young seem to be formed directly upon this basis, and are highly entitled to attention; as phlysis, palmus, pneusis. 239. In various instances, again, we find, as |