Volume 2

An introductory lecture to the medical classes in King's College, London ... Read, October 1, 1834 / [Herbert Mayo].

  • Herbert Mayo
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture to the medical classes in King's College, London ... Read, October 1, 1834 / [Herbert Mayo]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    / f ward course of rivers; — the level of the ocean, disturbed only as it follows in tidal wave the moon; — the mecha¬ nical elements of change which are influencing the sur¬ face of our planet;—are subjects of familiar contempla¬ tion to his mind. But a more searching glance may be thrown upon na¬ ture. The matter which forms earth, air, water, varies in a thousand shades of difference. Why is each what it seems, mutable or immutable ? Chemistry is the profound and beautiful science by which such questions are proposed and solved ; in which the molecular constitution of our globe and its atmosphere is examined and determined; the different bodies which we look upon tested ; whether they are simple, irreducible to other elements, like the metals; or whether, like the earths, they separate into distinct constituents; in which the forces of affinity or chemical attraction are explained, which combine or decompose, hold together or tear asunder, the elements of matter. It is evident how large the scope and application of this science must be; the mineralogist, the geologist, proceed not a step without it; the manufacturer, who labours in a thousand arts of life, depends in each upon his knowledge of chemical principles; not less direct and im¬ portant are the relations of chemistry to medical science. As yet the physical studies of our pupil have been li¬ mited to unorganized matter and its laws. He has viewed the silent earth, but as a circling planet; its structure, but as a mineralogical problem. Let him now imagine its surface peopled ; its bosom teeming with creation; its stillness changed to life; as when first, to quote Coleridge’s beautiful hexameters, ‘Thousandfold tribes of dwellers, impelPd by thousandfold instincts. Filled as a dream the wide waters; the rivers sang in their channels;
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