1 85 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FT. ill. 



light thrown upon the nature of the living body, by Harvey's 

 theory of the circulation of the blood and the discoveries 

 which followed concerning the way in which nourishment is 

 carried to it. We can see how Mayow's experiments, 

 proving that part of the air is burnt within us, supplying heat 

 to our bodies, would have been a grand step in advance if 

 he had lived to make them more known, and how, indeed, 

 they did influence those who came after, though his name 

 was for a time forgotten. More clearly still we can under- 

 stand how Malpighi's and Grew's investigations with the 

 microscope, bringing to light hidden parts and vessels of the 

 human frame, gave rise to a totally new branch of science, 

 and enabled men to study the organisation of their own 

 bodies with an accuracy quite impossible before ; while the 

 same method applied to Botany gave the first real insight into 

 the structure of plants, tracing out their delicate organs, and 

 even the tiny cells of which their flesh is composed. And 

 lastly, in the field of Natural History, we find that Ray and 

 Willughby performed the immense task of classifying the 

 whole animal and vegetable kingdoms, and laid the founda- 

 tion of the grand generalisations of Linnaeus in the next 

 century. 



