Discourse on the importance of the study of physiology as a branch of popular education / [John Fletcher].

  • John Fletcher
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Discourse on the importance of the study of physiology as a branch of popular education / [John Fletcher]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    quainted with its structure, and to attain such a know¬ ledge of anatomy is to people in general quite impracti¬ cable. The objection is an unfounded and a frivolous one. “ Will it be said,” asks Professor Drummond, “ that the great truths of astronomy can be made plain to the understanding only of those who are profound mathematicians and philosophers ? There are lengths in every science, indeed, which can be gained only by powerful talent and long and deep study; but although it required a Newton to unfold the mysteries of the pla¬ netary motions, as guided and controlled by the law of gravitation, still these motions, and most of the sublime facts of astronomy, can be comprehended by the bulk of the people, from plain illustrations given in plain and perspicuous language.5’ In like manner, in order to make discoveries in Physiology, it is unquestionably ne¬ cessary to be an accomplished anatomist; but a single glance at the general structure of the chest and lungs, for example, or of the heart and bloodvessels, in almost any animal, or even a cursory description of these or¬ gans, assisted by the rudest delineations, is quite suffi¬ cient to render abundantly intelligible to any body all the principal facts connected with respiration and the circulation of the blood in our own bodies. And the same remark may be extended to most of the other functions, very little more anatomy being requisite to enable us to comprehend a general description of them, than may be acquired by a few walks through the mar¬ ket, or even by our daily experience at the dinner or supper-table, provided we choose to pay attention to what .is presented to our observation. An oyster or a mussel will serve to initiate us into most of the myste¬ ries of the soft-bodied animals, and a lobster or a crab into those of such as are jointed. The never-failing haddock and the common skate may be taken as speci¬ mens of the general economy of fishes, bony and gristly, the fowl or goose of that of birds, and the rabbit or hare of that of quadrupeds. It is the loathsome reptiles alone that we are required to go a little out of our way for as objects of actual observation, and fortunately every thing
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