ARRANGEMENT OF DISEASES.

Upon this branch of nosology we have touched at some length in the article MEDICINE, and we shall therefore only add, in the present place, a few supplementary observations, which would have led us too far from the general scope of the article, had we indulged in them at that time.

The great advantage of arrangement or classification in the doctrine of diseases is distinction, and the facility it affords of contemplating groups of diseases under one common view. This last is an advantage, however, which applies chiefly to a natural arrangement; and it is remarkable that scarcely any method hitherto proposed has been founded upon such a basis.

The first attempt at a classification of diseases was made by Sauvages. It was published in a more abridged form, in octavo, before that vast mass of medical erudition, his two quarto volumes, was completed. It was first styled Pathologia, and the name was changed to prevent its being confounded with a branch of the institutions of medicine. His first class, vitia, import slight cutaneous diseases, or such as require chirurgical as sistance: the three next, fibres, phlegmasiæ, and spasmi, need no particular notice in this place, as we have given the orders, as well as the classes, in the article MEDICINE. Anhelationes, the fifth class, import diseases of difficult respiration; the remaining five are debilitates, dolores, vesaniæ, fluxus, and cachexia.

Linnéus applied to the same purpose all his comprehensive accuracy, with a peculiar quaintness of language. The exanthemati are eruptive; the critici, common fevers; and the phlogistici, fevers attended with inflammation. The dolorosi are painful diseases; mentales, those productive of an abolition of judgment; quietales, those productive of an abolition of motion; motori, import involuntary motions; suppressorii, obstructions of the natural passages; evacuatorii, morbid evacuations. The deformes are changes in the solids; and the vitia those of the surface.

Vogel's classification appeared in 1764: his epischyses import suppressions; his adynamic, debilities; his hyperestheses, sensations, depraved or acute: his paranoia, aberrations of mind; his vitia, superficial, and deformitates, more solid deformities. For the remainder the reader may turn to the article MEDICINE; as he may also for the arrangement of Sagar, which was published in 1776, and whose names do not require any particular remark or explanation. We may extend this obser

vation to the system of Dr. Darwin; and have given that of Dr. Cullen at such full length, as to render it unnecessary to return to it in this article. The last general work on this subject is the Philosophical Nosography of Pinel, differing little in its outline from the common systems; but possessing too great refinement, and perhaps a useless minuteness in the subdivisions. The classes are fevers, inflammations, active hæmorrhages, neurotics, lymphatic diseases, and an appendix or indeterminate class, comprising the jaundice of new-born children, diabates, worms, the bites of insects and serpents. It is not necessary to point out the imperfections of this method; it is not however one of the least that often the general, frequently the subordinate, divisions rest on the uncertain foundation of a theory; and a theory too very far from being universally admitted.

M. Selle's is a more limited system; whose Rudimenta Pyretologia Methodica was the subject of his thesis, and republished at Halle, in

1770, under the title of the Methodi Febrium Naturali Rudimenta, and afterwards in a more extensive form, under the first title, at Berlin, in 1786. To the last edition he introduced an attempt at a natural arrangement; and the classes are, inflammatory diseases, putrid, bilious, pituitous, wormy, milky, nervous, periodical obstructions, gouty, rickety, scrophulous, cancerous, venereal, scabious, scorbutic, poisonous, and organic. This is evidently, however, a mere outline, for the genera are not filled in; and it is obvious that they depend al most exclusively on causes, and are consequently theoretical. They approach nearly, in the manner of their formation, the natural orders of plants by Jussieu.

These are the chief systems founded, or pretended to be founded, on symptoms. If we were to examine each minutely, it would appear that, except in those of Linnéus and Cullen, there is no arrangement of classes, no traces of what constitutes a regular method. The method of Linnéus is somewhat fanciful; that of Cullen, into univer. sal and local diseases, injurious. In all, the fundamental error appears of forming classes without having ascertained species; so that in reality the classes are orders, and the orders in general claim no higher rank than the first associations of species, genera. In general we may remark, that there are some associations so obvious, that they at once seize the attention of every nosologist, for no one thinks of separating fevers or infiammations; nor, except Dr. Cullen, the passive bæ morrhages and profluvia from the active. Each slides into each other by such insensible shades, that we know not where the one begins and the other ends. There is also usually a great error in the definitions: the symptoms are seldom scienti fically arranged, so as to facilitate investigation. In botany, either the character of the sections, or the first part of the character, at once informs the student whether the plant belongs to that species, or to one far below. The nosologists have collected their symptoms with little care; and in their anxiety to distinguish diseases, have nearly rendered their definitions descriptions. This is particularly the error of Vogel and Sagar. To render their works also complete, they have included the minutest deviations from the natural appearance, forgetting that it was an arrange; ment of diseases, the essence of which consists in injured functions.

NOSOPOIETICS. (from vores, a disease, and it, to induce). Whatever injures the health,

and induces disease.

NOSTALGIA. (nostalgia, vooraλyse; from yw, to return, and anyos, pain.) A vehement desire of revisiting one's home or country. A genus of disease in the class locales and order dysorexia of. Cullen, known by impatience when absent from such places, an earnest wish to return, attended with gloom and melancholy, loss of appetite, and want of sleep.

NOSTRADAMUS (Michael), a French astrologer and physician, was born in Provence in 1503. He took his degree of doctor of physic at Montpellier, in 1529; and in 1546 went to Aix, at the solicitation of the inhabitants, the place then being greatly afflicted with the plague; and for his services on that occasion he received a considerable pension for many years. In 1555 he published his quatrains of prophecies, which excited considerable notice,

and though many looked upon him as a visionary, there were more who regarded him as a conjuror. He was well received at court, and under the royal patronage published an enlarged edition of his work. He died in 1566, leaving three sons and three daughters.

Besides his Centuries, we have the following compositions of his: a treatise de fardemens et de senteurs, 1552; a book of singular receipts, pour entretenir la santé du corps, 1556; a piece des confitures, 1557; a French translation of the Latin of Galen's paraphrase, exhorting. Menedolus to study, especially to that of physic, 1552. Some years before his death, he published a sma instruction for husband men, showing the best seasons for their several labours, which he intitled, The Almanac of Nostrodamus. Lastly, after his death there came out the eleventh and twelfth Centuries of his Quetrains, added to the former ten, which had been printed three times in two separate parts. It is only in these first editions that our author's Centuries are found without alterations, additions, &c. It is to this work that the following distich of Stephen Jodelle alludes.

Nostra damus cum fulsa damus, nam fallere

nostrum est.

Et cum falsa damus, nil nisi Nostra damus.

NOʻSTRIL. s. (nose and Sypl, a hole, Saxon.) The cavity in the nose (Bacon). NO'STRUM. s. (Latin.) A medicine not made public, but remaining in some single hand (Stilling fleet).

NOT. ad. (ne auhʊ, Saxon; niet, Dutch.) 1. The particle of negation, or refusal. 2. It denotes cessation or extinction. No more (Job).

NOTABLE. a. (notable, Fr. notabilis, Lat.) 1. Remarkable; memorable; observable (Sidney). 2. Careful; bustling (Addison), NOTABLENESS, s. (from notable.) Appearance of business; importance.

NOTABLY. ad. (froin notable.) 1. Memorably; remarkably (Bacon). 2. With consequence; with show of importance (Addison). NOTE, signs used in writing, which have the force of many letters. This contrivance for expedition is of great an iquity. It was known to the Greeks, and from them derived to the Romans. By whom the invention was brought into Rome is not precisely ascertained; but the most general opinion is, that in matters of importance Tully first made use of notes or short-hand writing, when Cato made an eration in order to oppose Julius Cæsar relative to the conspiracy of Catiline. Cicero, who was at that time consul, placed notarii, or expert short-hand writers, in different parts of the senate-house, to take down the speech; and this was the first public occasion which we find recorded of employing short-hand writers among the Romans. It is unnecessary to observe, that hence proceeded the name of notary, still in use.

There were three kinds of notes for shorthand writing used by the ancients, either for VOL. VIII.

dispatch or secresy. The first and most ancient was that of hieroglyphics, which are rather images or representations of things than of words. (See HIEROGLYPHICS.) The Chinese characters are of this kind, and may with greater propriety be called note than litteræ, as appears from what hath been already advanced. The second species of notes were called singulariæ, from their expressing words by single letters. Sertorius Ursatus bas compiled a very copious collection of such abbrevi➡ ations, of which work there are several editions. The third kind of notes were called nota Tironianæ, from Tiro the freed-man of Cicero, who was excellently skilled in this art; and it is to him that we are indebted for the preservation of Cicero's letters, of which a great part still remain, and one entire book of them writ ten to Tiro himself.

NOTARIAL. a. (from notary.) Taken by a notary (Ayliffe).

NOTARY (notarius), signifies a person, usually some scrivener, who takes notes, or frames short draughts, of contracts, obligations, charter-parties, or other writings. At present we call him a notary-public, who publicly attests deeds or writings, in order to make them authentic in another nation: but he is principally employed in business concerning merchants; as making protests of bills of exchange, &c. And noting a bill, is where he goes to take notice of a merchant's refusal to accept or pay the same.

NOTATION. s. (notatio, Latin.) 1. The act or practice of recording any thing by marks; as by figures or letters (Cocker). 2. Meaning; signification (¡¡ammond).

NOTATION, in music. See MUSIC. NOTATION, in arithmetic, is the representing of numbers, or any other quantities, by notes, characters, or marks.

The choice of arithmetical, and other, characters, is arbitrary; and hence they are various in various nations: the figures 0, 1, 2, 3, &c. in common use, are derived from the Arabs and Indians, from whom they have their name, and the notation by them, which forms the decimal or decuple scale, is perhaps the most convenient of any for arithmetical computa- . tions.

The Greeks, Hebrews, and other eastern nations, as also the Romans, expressed num bers by the letters of their common alphabet. See CHARACTER.

In algebra, the quantities are represented mostly by the letters of the alphabet, &c.; and that as early as the time of Diophantus. See ALGEBRA.

NOTATION (Scales of). See SCALE.

NOTCH. s. (nocchie, Italian.) A nick; a hollow cut in any thing; a nock (Grew). To NOTCH. v. a. (from the noun.) To cut in small hollows (Grew).

NOTCHED LEAF. See CRENATE. NOTCHWEED, in botany. See UR

TICA.

NOTE. (for ne mote.) May not (Spenser). NOTE. S. (nota, Latin; note, French.) 1. ΙΙ

whole insect does not appear larger than a small grain of sand, and is of a brown colour, transversely striated.

The notonecta have obtained their name from the singular manner in which they swim on the back, presenting the belly uppermost. This situation seems adinirably fitted for the creature's manner of feeding, which is said to be on the under side of plants that grow on the surface of the water; for the animal, by having its mouth thus turned upwards, is capable of taking its food with great convenience: nor are its motions in the least impeded by this apparently awkward posture; on the contrary, it is very nimble, diving down instantaneously when it perceives danger, and rising again to the surface, the two hind legs all the while serving for paddles.

NOTORIETY. s. (notorieté, Fr.) Public knowledge; public exposure (Addison). NOTORIOUS. a. (notorius, Lat. notoire, Fr.) Publicly known; evident to the world; apparent; not hidden (Whitgift).

NOTORIOUSLY. ad. (from notorious.) Publicly; evidently; openly (Clarendon). NOTORIOUSNESS. s. (from notorious.) Public fame; notoriety.

NOTOXUS, in zoology, a genus of the class insecta, order coleoptera. Antennas filiform; feelers four, hatchet-shaped; jaw one-toothed; thorax a little narrowed behind. Thirteen species scattered over the globe, of which four are common to our own country, generally found on umbelliferous plants.

To NOTT. v. a. To shear (Ainsworth). NOTTINGHAM, a borough and the capital of Nottinghamshire, governed by a mayor, with a market on Wednesday and Saturday. It is situate on the side and summit of a rock, into which are cut some small habitations, and numerous vaults or cellars. To the west of the town, on a rocky eminence, is the castle, a magnificent modern structure, belonging to the duke of Newcastle, built on the site of an ancient fortress, celebrated in English history. It is a handsome town, distinguished by its spacious market-place, and noted for its excellent ale. In 1801 it contained 28,861 inhahitants. It is one of the principal seats of the stocking manufacture, particularly of the finer kinds, as those of silk and cotton; and has also a manufacture of coarse earthen ware. The malting business is likewise considerable. It has three parish-churches, and many meetinghouses for dissenters. In the neighbourhood are many coalpits, which afford plenty of fuel, at little expence. At this town Charles I. set up his standard, at the commencement of the civil war, which terminated in his destruction. Nottingham is seated on a river, which communicates with the Trent, one mile to the south. It is 16 miles E. of Derby, and 124 N. by W. of London. Lon. 1. 2 W. Lat. 52.

58 N.

NOTTINGHAM, a town of Maryland, in Prince George county, situate on the Patuxent, 20 miles S.E. of Washington.

NOTTINGHAM, a town of New Hamp

shire, in Rockingham county, 14 miles N.N.W. of Exeter.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, a county of Eng land, 48 miles long, and 20 broad; bounded on the N by Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, E. by the latter county, S. by Leicestershire, and W. by Derbyshire. It contains 495,360 acres; is divided into eight hundreds, and 168 parishes; and has nine market-towns. The number of inhabitants in 1801 was 140,350: and it sends eight members to parliament. It enjoys such a temperature of soil and climate, as to render it one of the most fertile and pleasant counties in England. The principal rivers are the Trent and Idle. Almost the whole of the middle and western parts of the county were formerly occupied by the extensive forest of Sherwood, which is the only royal forest N. of the Trent; but the wood has in most parts been cleared, and the extent of the forest much contracted by enclosures. The chief products of this county are coal, of which there is great plenty; a kind of stone somewhat like alabaster, but not so hard, which, when burnt, mikes a plaster exceedingly hard, and with this the inhabitants generally lay the floors of their upper rooms, instead of boarding them: its other commodities are malt, hops, wool, licorice, and woad. The manufactures chiefly consist of framework, knitting, glass, and earthenware.

NOTWHEAT. s. (not and wheat.) Of wheat there are two sorts; French, which is bearded, and not wheat, so termed because it is unbearded (Carew).

NOTWITHSTANDING. conj. (This word is properly a participial adjective, as it is compounded of not and withstanding, and answers exactly to the Latin non obstante.) 1. Without hinderance or obstruction from. 2. Although not proper (Addison). 3. Nevertheless; however (Hooker).

:

NOTUS s. (Latin.) The south wind. NOVACULITE, in mineralogy, a species of ARDERIA, which see.

NOVARA, an ancient and strong town of Italy, in the duchy of Milan, capital of the Novarese, with a bishop's see It is seated on an eminence, 12 miles N.E. of Verceil, and 25 W. by S of Milan. Lon. 8. 35 E. Lat. 45. 25 N.

NOVA SCOTIA, or ARCADIA, a country of British North America, bounded on the W. by the United States, on the N. by the river St. Lawrence, on the E. by the gulf of that name, and on the S. by the Atlantic and bay of Fundy; being so indented by the latter, that its eastern part forms a peninsula. It extends from Cape Sable, its most southern point, in Lat. 43. 23 to 49. 30 N, and from 60. 15 to 67. 0 W. Lon. In 1784 part of this country was formed into a new province. (See NEW BRUNSWICK.) The atmosphere, for a great part of the year, is clouded with a thick fog, which renders it unhealthy; and, for four or five months, it is intensely cold. A great part of the country lies in forest; and the soil (except on the banks of the rivers) is thin and bat ren. Halifax is the capital.