Stephen Hales, the physiologist / by Percy M. Dawson.

  • Dawson, Percy M. (Percy Millard), 1873-
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Stephen Hales, the physiologist / by Percy M. Dawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ] the Eesearches of those who have pleasure therein: We can never indeed want for Matter for new Experiments; and tho' the History of Nature as recorded by almost innumerable Ex- periments, which have been made within the compass of a Century, be very large, yet the Properties of Bodies are so various, and the different Ways by which they may be exam- ined so infinite, that 'tis no wonder that we as yet have got little farther than the Surface of Things: Yet ought we not to be discouraged, for tho' we can never hope to attain to the compleat Knowledge of the Texture, or constituent Frame and Nature of Bodies, yet may we reasonably expect by this Method of Experiments, to make farther and farther Advances abundantly sufficient to reward our Pains. And tho' the Method be tedious, yet our Abilities can pro- ceed no faster; for as the learned author of the Procedure of human Understanding observes, pag. 205, 206, ' All the real true Knowledge we have is entirely experimental, in so much that, how strange soever the Assertion seems, we may lay it down as the first fundamental and unerring Eule of Physicks, That it is not within the compass of human Under- standing to assign a purely speculative Reason for any one Phenomenon in Nature.' As the animal Body' consists not only of a wonderful texture of solid Parts, but also of a large proportion of Fluids, which are continually circulating and flowing, thro' an inimi- table Embroidery of Blood-Vessels, and other inconceivably minute Canals: And as the healthy State of the Animal principally consists, in the maintaining of a due Equilibrium between those Solids and Fluids; it has, ever since the import- ant Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, been looked upon as a Matter well worth the inquiring into, to find the Force and Velocity with which these Fluids are impelled; as a likely means to give a considerable Insight into the animal OEconomy. Several ingenious Persons have from time to time, attempted to make Estimates of the Force of the Blood in the Heart and Arteries, who have as widely differed from each »Introduction. 1. Haemostaticks, 1733.