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 BROWN 337 through the preliminary classes, entered him- self as a student of divinity in the university. For some time he supported himself by private teaching, and then resumed his labors as as- sistant teacher at Dunse, where he remained about a year. In 1759 he returned to Edin- burgh, renounced the study of theology, and commenced that of medicine, supporting him- self by giving private instruction in Latin to medical students. Dr. Cullen employed him as a private tutor in his own family, and recom- mended him to others, but opposed his nomina- tion to a professorship, whereupon Brown be- gan to attack the doctor's medical views. Hav- ing quarrelled with the professors at Edinburgh, he took his degree of M. D. at St. Andrew's. In 1780 he published his Elementa Medicines, which contains the doctrines he propounded in opposition to the views of Dr. Cullen, and for several years he continued to explain these doctrines in public lectures. The excitement produced by this work was very great in all the medical schools of Europe; and in Edin- burgh two hostile camps were formed among the students, under the names of " Oullenites " and "Brownites." The contest sometimes raged with so much violence as to lead to col- lisions among the younger partisans. In 1786 Brown went to London, where he opened a private school of medicine, and gave leetiires in his own house in Golden square. His family was large, and his habits intemperate ; his ex- penses were greater than his income, and being involved in debt, he was confined in the king's bench prison during several months, until re- leased by the assistance of some of his friends. His doctrines had gained many converts hi the medical schools abroad, and he was making preparations to leave England for the continent, when he died of apoplexy. The publication of his first work was followed in 1781 by " An In- quiry into the State of Medicine, on the Prin- ciples of the Inductive Philosophy." In 1787 he published " Observations on the Principles of the Old System of Physio." A complete edition of his works (3 vols. 8vo) was pub- lished in London by his son, William Cullen Brown, in 1804. The basis of Brown's medi- cal theory is the doctrine of " excitability." In his view, the human organism, in common with that of animals, mainly differs from inorganic bodies by the property of being excited under the influence of external agents, or the functions of internal organs, peculiar to organic life. The physical external agents which excite the organism to act are heat, light, air, and alimen- tary substances; internally, the blood and the humors which are drawn from the blood. Those functions of the organs which produce a similar effect, according to this theory, are muscular contractions, the various secretions of the body, the passions, and the energy of the brain in the processes of thought. These are what Brown terms the stimulating or ex- . citing forces, which, collectively considered, produce life ; and when this influence ceases, death ensues. The state of health consists in a proper equilibrium between the exciting forces and the vital principle of excitability within the organism; disease consists in the rupture of this equilibrium. Two kinds of ex- cess may disturb the equilibrium of health, and hence all diseases may be classed under two general heads : those produced by an excess of the stimulating forces, and those resulting from an insufficiency of stimulation. The one are called " sthenic " (Gr. cdtvos, strength), and the other " asthenic," from the want of force. The treatment consists in diminishing the excess of stimulus in one case, and supplying that which is deficient in the other. His doctrines became very popular for a time all over Europe. Gir- tanner spread them in Germany, and Rasori in Italy. Broussais developed similar views in another form, 30 years later, in France, at- tributing the origin of all diseases to inflamma- tory action in the organism, and substituting the word "irritability" in lieu of "excitabil- ity," but adopting Brown's division of all dis- eases into two classes, "sthenic and asthenic." The exaggerations of these two schools have lost their influence on many minds, but the words which mainly characterized their doc- trines, as stimulants and contra-stimulants, irritability and excitability, sthenic and asthenic, are still common in the medical vocabulary. BROWN, John, an American officer, born at Sandisfield, Berkshire co., Mass.', Oct. 19, 1744, died Oct. 19, 1780. He graduated at Yale college in 1771, and officiated as king's attor- ney at Caughnawaga, N. Y. In 1775 he went into Canada, disguised as a horse trader, to ex- cite the people to unite with the other colonies in the revolution. He was with Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga, and on Sept. 24 following took Fort Chambly. He was also at Quebec when Montgomery fell. In 1776 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and during the next year was conspicuous on the shores of Lake George. He was killed by the Indians while marching to rescue Schuyler in the Mohawk valley campaign. BROWN, John, a Scottish divine, born near Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, July 12, 1784, died Oct. 13, 1858. He was ordained pastor of the Burgher congregation at Biggar in 1806. In 1821 he removed to Edinburgh, and was chosen professor of divinity in 1834. As a preacher he was among the first of his time. His principal works are : " The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience, especially in the Payment of Tribute ; " " The Resurrection of Life;" and "Expository Discourses on the Epistles of Peter, on the Epistle to the Gala- tians, and on the Epistle to the Romans." BROWN, John, a Scottish author, son of the preceding, born in Biggar, Lanarkshire, in September, 1810. He was educated at the high school and the university of Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M. D. His literary reputation rests on a series of papers contributed to the "North British Review"