Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan.

  • Harlan, Richard, 1796-1843.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    no branch of medical, not to say of universal, knowledge. Perhaps this neglect may be, in some degree, attributable to the aversion of some of the learned members of our profession to acknowledge the importance of a science, to the principles of which they have themselves devoted scarcely any attention ; but let them reflect, for a moment, on the difficulties which they have encountered in the intricate paths of even elementary knowledge; let them but view the endless chain of exploded theories of respi- ration, digestion, secretion, the generation of animal heat, &c, which, but for the reprehensible ignorance of their authors, of comparative anatomy and general physiology, would never have found existence. In fine, when we con- sider that all we do really know of the functions of the human body, is directly or indirectly due to the study of comparative anatomy, including general physiology, we will be forced to acknowledge, with Haller, that medicine is more indebted to this than to any other branch of knowledge. The labours of Blumenbach, Meckel, Rudolphi, Tiedemann, Rathke', Treviranus, Carus, &c. in Ger- many, of Cuvier, Blainville, Geoffroy, and many others, in France, and of Lawrence, M'Cartney, and Home, in England, among the modern authors who have successfully cultivated comparative anatomy, justify the assertion, that a knowledge of the facts to be derived from its study, is absolutely indispensable to the philoso- phical and successful prosecution of the study of human physiology, pathology, and the doctrines of hygiene. We cannot but cherish the hope that the day is not far distant, when America, who has so liberally repaid her European debt in some other departments of science, will also soon assert her claims in this. The present work of M. Meckel should be placed in the hands of every student of comparative anatomy, after he has made himself acquainted with Baron Cuvier's Le-