It would be unprofitable to attempt a complete analysis of the Brunonian system; and it is difficult now to understand why it attracted so much attention in its day.
The fortunes of Brown's system (called, from having been originally written in Latin, the Brunonian) form one of the strangest chapters in the history of medicine.
Joseph Frank (1774-1841), a German professor at Pavia, afterwards of Vienna, the author of an encyclopaedic work on medicine now forgotten, embraced the Brunonian system, though he afterwards introduced some modifications, and transplanted it to Vienna.
Many names are quoted as partisans or opponents of the Brunonian system in Italy, but scarcely one of them has any other claim to be remembered.
The explanation of the meteoric splendour of the Brunonian system in other countries seems to be as follows.