lect. vn] . The English School. 175 



Conspicuous among these was a gentleman of leisure, of 

 noble birth, the Honourable Robert Boyle, whose keen intellect 

 pierced far into every problem to which he turned his mind, 

 and who touched nothing without leaving his mark upon it. 



It would be out of place for me here to attempt to give 

 even a sketch of Boyle's influence on the progress of physical 

 and chemical science. I must content myself with speaking 

 only of his notable contribution to the solution of respiratory 

 problems, a contribution which was part of and incidental to 

 his researches on the general properties of the atmosphere. 



Before doing so I must briefly recall to your minds the 

 progress which had been made in the knowledge of this subject 

 of respiration up to the time when Boyle made his notable 

 experiment. 



In the old Galenic doctrine the movements of respiration, 

 as we have seen in speaking of Fabricius, served a double, or 

 rather a triple purpose. In the first place the air introduced 

 by breathing served to regulate, to maintain, and at the same 

 time to temper, to refrigerate the innate heat of the heart, 

 that fire which, placed in the heart at the beginning, continued 

 there all life long and was the one source of the warmth of 

 the body. In the second place the pumping action of the 

 chest served to introduce into the blood the air which was 

 necessary for the generation in the left side of the heart of 

 the vital spirits, which were thence distributed over the body 

 by the arteries. In the third place the same action served to 

 get rid of the fuliginous vapours, the products of the innate 

 fire burning in the heart. Both the pure air engendering the 

 vital spirits, and the foul vapours the effect of the heart's 

 labours, were supposed to pass by the vein-like artery, the 

 pulmonary vein, the one one way, the other the other. 



The absurdity of supposing that the same channel could 

 serve for these two currents is put forward by Harvey in his 

 book as the first difficulty which meets one in considering the 

 validity of the Galenic doctrines ; but it was a difficulty which 

 Fabricius did not feel or which at least lay lightly upon 

 him. 



With Harvey's demonstration all this view fell crumbling 



