ABSTRACT

Von Haller in physiology, and Cullen and Brown in pathology formed the two culminating points of the doctrine of irritability and neurosism. Haller laid too much stress on the multiplication of experiments as constituting science, while his doctrine gave rise to many researches and discussions and at the same time inspired in others the theory of spasm and stimulus. Haller was more of a savant than a practitioner, in spite of his early success as a physician. Thus the naturalists, by their experimental work, adopted the ideas of organicism, but on the other hand they reacted against the too materialistic and mechanical theories of this system by constituting a general science of man alongside of purely organic physiology. Rasori and Broussais practically adopted the Brunonian theory for their systems, but reversed Brown's teachings, holding that sthenic diseases were common and asthenic maladies infrequent; hence their therapeutic consisted of contra-stimulants and antiphlogistics.