Treatise on human physiology : For the use of students & practitioners of medicine / By Henry C. Chapman. Illustrated with 595 engravings.

  • Henry Cadwalader Chapman
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on human physiology : For the use of students & practitioners of medicine / By Henry C. Chapman. Illustrated with 595 engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    ogy, is a mindless study and does not deserve the name of science. Can one study the arrangement of a machine without any reference to its object ? It is possible simply to view the harmoniously ar- ranged parts of a whole, simply to stare at it without reflection. The anatomist can undertake no investigation without considering the physiological questions involved. The paths of both sciences meet and cross each other in so many places that there arc but few divergent points. In beginning the study of any su1)ject not only is it indispensable that the object of the investigation should be clearly defined, but it is proper that relation to knowledge in general should be pointed out. The classification of the sciences has been a vexed one from the time of Bacon' to Comte. This, from the nature of things, might have been expected; for there are no sharply defined lines in nature; one science encroaches so upon another that it is impossi- ble to say where the one ends and the other begins. All classifica- tion, therefore, must be imperfect. The following one, that of Comte, is ojjcn to many criticisms, as shown in the masterly essay of Spencer.'* Classification of Knowledge (^ Mathematics. Astronomy. Physics. Chemistry. , ^ Biology. r/ ..1 f Anatomy. o • 1 Zoology. - T5, . 1 -^ bociologv. ^ ^•' rhvsiology. Admitting its many fiuilts, we make use of it here on account of its brevity sim])ly to indicate the position of Physiology relatively to that of other kinds of knowledge. It will be seen, from the table, that the study of plants and ani- mals constitutes the sul)ject-matter of Biology. The second division of this grand science comprehends all that is known of the structure, functions, habits, geographical and geolog- ical distribution of animals ; therefore, the study of animal functions or animal physiology is a subdivision of Zoology. In the same manner, vegetal ]ihysiology forms a part of Botany. Human phy- siology, a part of general animal physiology, forms the subject of this work. If the sciences are studied in the order in which they follow each other as given above, then the inorganic will precede the organic-. This is the logical order and historically the one in which they were, generally speaking, cultivated, for the phenomena of the in- organic world are less complex and more easily generalized than those of the organic, and, therefore, more readily investigated. 1 De Augmentis Scientiamm. ^ Cours de Philosophic Positive. 'Genesis of Science. Essays. London, 1868.