Volume 2

An elementary system of physiology ... / [John Bostock].

  • John Bostock
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An elementary system of physiology ... / [John Bostock]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/920
    truth of the foregoing statement cannot be denied, still, I appre- hend, the subject possesses many claims upon us. It might be sufficient to allege that the theories of eminent physiologists form a curious part of the history of the science, that they mark the progress of knowledge, and exhibit, in an interesting point of view, the operations of the mind in its attempts to arrive at truth. It can surely never be considered as an unimportant or trifling pursuit to inquire how such men as Haller and Hunter reasoned, or by what mode of investigation they were led to the discovery of the truths which immortalize their names. And further, although no one in the present day can be in- sensible to the comparative value which ought to be attached to facts and to opinions, still they are often so intimately blended together that it is extremely difficult to separate them, and this is more especially the case in the study of physiolegy, where, from obvious causes, it is much less easy to make observations, or to perform experiments that may lead to unexceptionable results, than when we operate upon inanimate matter. Even the most unfounded, and, as we now conceive them, the most absurd theories of the chemical and mathematical physiologists of the seventeenth century, were, to a certain extent, derived from what, at that period, was called experiment, and which satisfied the minds of the learned men of the age; yet if we except the simple detail of anatomical observation, there is perhaps scarcely a single statement against which we should not now be disposed to offer some objections. And there is another circumstance which renders it necessary for the student to be made acquainted with the most noted theories of the older writers, that without this knowledge their works would be unintelligible ; for such complete possession had these topics taken of their minds, that we can scarcely peruse a single page without meeting with some theory, either expressed or implied, which is intimately con- nected no less with their observations than with their reasoning. And I shall further advocate the cause of theory, as being a direct means, and that a very important one, of acquiring a knowledge of facts. In prosecuting our investigations we are necessarily guided by some object, and this is, in most cases, a preconceived hypothesis, which we wish either to put to the test of experiment, or to inquire how far it can be reconciled with the structure of the body or the operation of its functions. This is the natural process by which information is acquired ; the