s theory to the exclusion
of long-established, although perhaps purely empirical, remedies.
Consequently, many vague theorists have been excellent practitioners,
and Hoffman was one of these. Some of the remedies he introduced are
still in use, notably the spirits of ether, or "Hoffman's anodyne."

ANIMISTS, VITALISTS, AND ORGANICISTS

Besides Hoffman's system of medicine, there were numerous others during
the eighteenth century, most of which are of no importance whatever;
but three, at least, that came into existence and disappeared during the
century are worthy of fuller notice. One of these, the Animists, had for
its chief exponent Georg Ernst Stahl of "phlogiston" fame; another, the
Vitalists, was championed by Paul Joseph Barthez (1734-1806); and the
third was the Organicists. This last, while agreeing with the other
two that vital activity cannot be explained by the laws of physics
and chemistry, differed in not believing that life "was due to some
spiritual entity," but rather to the structure of the body itself.

The Animists taught that the soul performed functions of ordinary life
in man, while the life of lower animals was controlled by ordinary
mechanical principles. Stahl supported this theory ardently, sometimes
violently, at times declaring that there were "no longer any doctors,
only mechanics and chemists." He denied that chemistry had anything to
do with medicine, and, in the main, discarded anatomy as useless to the
medical man. The soul, he thought, was the source of all vital movement;
and the immediate cause of death was not disease but the direct action
of the soul. When through some lesion, or because the machinery of the
body has become unworkable, as in old age, the soul leaves the body
and death is produced. The soul ordinarily selects the channels of the
circulation, and the contractile parts, as the route for influencing
the body. Hence in fever the pulse is quickened, due to the increased
activity of the soul, and convulsions and spasmodic movements in disease
are due, to the, same cause. Stagnation of the blood was supposed to
be a fertile cause of diseases, and such diseases were supposed to
arise mostly from "plethora"--an all-important element in Stahl's
therapeutics. By many this theory is regarded as an attempt on the
part of the pious Stahl to reconcile medicine and theology in a
way satisfactory to both physicians and theologians, but, like many
conciliatory attempts, it was vi