Note 128 — PHARMACOLOGIA. ON THE OPERATIONS OF MEDICINAL BODIES, AND ON THE CLASSIFICATIONS FOUNDED ON THEM.

The term sympathy has often been objected to, as being too figurative; it is certainly a metaphor taken from an affection of the mind, but, as Sir Gilbert Blane very justly remarks, the import of words ought either to be assumed conventionally according to a definition, or to be adhered to in the sense affixed to it by established usage; “by animal sympathy,” says he, “is not meant the intelligible principle of Stahl’s hypothesis, but that mutual influence of distant parts, so subtle and rapid as in some instances to be compared to thought or lightning; while in other instances it is an action more tardy and habitual.” Medical Logic, Edit. 2nd, p. 123. In the present work, I wish the reader to understand the term sympathy, wherever it may occur, in conformity with the above definition.