Note 826 — Chapter V · (continued 3)

This idea runs through the whole of his writings. In the following passage, it is more succinctly stated than in any other: ‘In pathology, and in the prognosis of particular diseases, it is absolutely necessary to enter into the distinction of these causes. I call the one direct causes, those which act upon the nervous system directly; and the other indirect causes, those which produce the same effect, but by destroying those organs which are necessary to the support of the excitement, viz. the whole system of circulation.’ Cullen's Works, vol. i. p. 135. Even this passage, clear as it seems, can only be rightly interpreted by taking the context into consideration.