Excerpt from A New Synopsis of Nosology, Founded on the Principles of Pathological Anatomy, and of the Natural Affinities of Diseases The word Nosology, according to its derivation, simply means a discourse on diseases; but, by conventional acceptation, it is used to signify their systematic classi fication. From the earliest periods in the history of medicine, when diseases came to be treated of in books, irregular vestiges of this department of medical science are to be found; and hence we observe the father of our art, Hippocrates, arranging diseases in groups, founded on some real or supposed analogy between them, or treating of them collectively, as they affect particular organs or parts of the body. As a know ledge of the nature of diseases became more correct and extended, we find, in later successive writers, greater precision and method in their classification but Nosology, as a distinct branch of medical science, takes its origin from a period comparatively modern. Plater, who wrote in the beginning of the seventeenth century, was the first to sketch the penumbra of what is now understood by a synoptical classification of dis eases. In his work on the Practice of Medicine, pub lished at Basle in 1602, this author succeeded in making a first step towards a systematic arrangement of dis eases, especially those affecting the nerves of sense and motion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.