The foundations of medical history / by Sir D'Arcy Power.

  • D'Arcy Power
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The foundations of medical history / by Sir D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    178/208 page 160
    Q. Why do such as cleave wood cleave it easier in the length than athwart? A. Because in the wood there is a grain, whereby if it be cut in length, in the very cutting one part naturally separateth from another. Q. What is the reason that if a spear be stricken on the end, the sound cometh sooner to one who standeth near, than to him who striketh? A. Because as hath been said there is a certain long grain in wood directly forward filled with air; but on the other side there is none and therefore a beam or spear being stricken on the end the air which is hidden receiveth a sound in the aforesaid grain which serveth for its passage. And seeing the sound cannot go easily out of it carried into the ear of him who is opposite, as those passages do not go from side to side, a sound cannot be distinctly heard there. Here is a groping into physical science which does not carry him very far, though it might have led him to the invention of the stethoscope, had his mind been of the practical kind. He is even less successful in his physiology. He asks: Q. Why are the sensible powers in the heart, yet if the hinder part of the brain be hurt, the memory suffereth by it; if the forepart, the imagination; if the middle, the cogitative part? A. It is because the brain is appointed by nature to cool the blood of the heart; whereof it is, that in divers of its parts it serveth the powers and instruments with their heart for every action of the soul doth not proceed from one measure of heat. This to me is nonsense.
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