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BERT BOYLE 43 



The Work of Boyle, Now we turn to the English 

 school. Robert Boyle "(1627-1691), perhaps the most re- 

 nowned physicist of his time, by me ans of the air pump 

 jmade many researches on the "spring" of air. He showed, 

 among other things that a flame was extinguished in a partial 

 vacuum and that in a more complete vacuum not only the flame but 

 the lives of small animals such as the mouse ceased very quickly. 

 Here we see that the phenomena connected with the burning candle 

 closely resembled the phenomena of life ; furthermore that air what- 

 ever it might be, and not the mechanical movements of the chest 

 wall was necessary for the continuance of life. Boyle lived, at Ox- 

 ford for many years and while there made important improvements 

 in the air pump and in a long series of experiments with it made vari-? 

 ous discoveries in the properties of air and the propagation of sound 

 He was at the same time an ardent student of theology. He was ad- 

 vised to enter the church, but declined, feeling that his writings on 

 religious topics would have greater weight coming from a layman 

 than from a paid clergyman. As a man of science he was the ^rst 

 to carry out the principles of Bacon's Novum Organum. 



The next step was taken by Robert Hooke, who was for some 

 time assistant to Boyle. xHooke was bom on the Isle of Wight, in 1635. 

 He was destined for the church, but ill-health diverted his career into 

 other channels, which gave scope for his precocious mechanical 

 genius. His personal appearance is described as very unattractive ; 

 his hair being in dishevelled locks over his haggared countenance. He 

 possessed an irritable temper and was much given to spending his 

 time in solitude. 



To him Boyle was endebted for valuable work in connection with 

 the perfecting of his air pump. He was one of the earliest and most 

 zealous users of the microscope ; a volume entitled Micrographia, con- 

 tains an account of his many ''Observations Made on Minute Bodies 

 of varied kinds by magnifying glasses." Hooke's microscopic studies 

 on cork lead to the adoption of the term "cell" as the histologic unit. 

 He was curator of the Royal society, at a meeting of which he demon- 

 strated before the Fellows an experiment on artificial respiration, 

 which had been made before and many times since. The uniqueness 

 of the experiment consisted in the important conclusions which Hooke 

 made. The experiment consisted in opening the thorax of a dog and 

 substituting the movements of the chest wall by respiratory move- 

 ments accomplished by means of hand bellows, the nozzel inserted in 

 the trachea. This proved that the mechanical movements of the 

 chest wall were only of a secondary importance and that the whole 

 business of respiration was carried on in the lungs. This fact was fur- 

 ther proven by inflating the lungs to their utmost capacity and keep- 

 ing them distended by a powerful blast allowing the air to escape con- 

 tinually through minute holes pricked in the lungs. This showed that 

 life could be maintained even in the absence of the artificial move- 

 ments so long as the parenchyma of the lungs were so subjected to a 

 fresh supply of air. Therefore the secret of the change from venous 

 to arterial blood depended upon the exposure of the blood to fresh 

 air which was in the course of life accomplished by the bellows-like 

 action of the chest wall and diaphragm. 



