56 



nevertheless, sufficient correct applications of calculation. Calculation 

 may likewise be applied with advantage, to the measurement of the re- 

 sults of our different secretions to ascertain the quantity of air, or of ali- 

 ment, introduced into our organs, Sec. 



Among; the principal causes which have retarded, in a considerable de< 

 gree, the progress of physiology, may be enumerated the mistake of those 

 who have endeavoured to explain all the phenomena of living bodies, by 

 a single science, as chemistry, hydraulics, Sec. while the union of all these 

 sciences, will not account for the sum of these phenomena. The abuse, 

 however, of these sciences, should not be a reason for setting them aside 

 altogether. The facts obtained from natural philosophy, chemistry, me- 

 chanics, and geometry, are so many means applicable to the solution of 

 the great problem of the vital ceconomy; a solution which, though as yet 

 undiscovered, should not be considered as unattainable, and to which we 

 shall approach the nearer, as we attempt it with a greater number of da- 

 ta. But it cannot be too often repeated, that he alone can hope for that 

 honour, who, in the application of the laws of natural philosophy to liv- 

 ing bodies, will take into account the powers inherent in organized na- 

 ture, wnich controul, with supreme influence, all the acts of life, and mo- 

 dify the results that appear most to depend on the laws by which inor- 

 ganic bodies are governed. 



Anatomy and physiology are united by such close relations, that it has 

 been an opinion with some, that they are absolutely inseparable. If phy- 

 siology, say they, has for its object, a knowledge of the functions carried 

 on by our organs, how is one to understand their mechanism, without 

 knowing the instruments by which they are performed? One might as 

 well attempt to explain the manner in which the hand of a watch performs 

 the circle of its diurnal revolution, without understanding the springs 

 and numerous wheels which set it in motion. Haller is the first who es- 

 tablished the connexion between anatomy and physiology, and who illus- 

 trated it in his great work. Since Haller, a great number of anatomists, 

 and among them Soemmering*, in a work recently published, have com- 

 bined, as much as possible, these two sciences ; the latter, in treating se- 

 parately of each system of organs, explains what is best known of their 

 uses and properties. 



However close the connexion between anatomy and physiology, they 

 have, nevertheless, appeared perfectly distinct to the greater number of 

 authors, and we have several valuable works on anatomy, of which phy- 

 siology occupies but a small part. This manner of embracing the two 

 sciences appears to me attended with the greatest advantage; in fact, if 

 the insulated description of organs suffices to the physiologist who wishes 

 to study their functions, that method is attended with the disadvantage of 

 furnishing few truly useful views, in the practice of operative surgery. 

 To render the knowledge of the human body more especially applicable 

 to the practice of surgery, it is necessary, not only to consider separately 

 the different parts, but likewise to view them in their connexion, and to 

 determine precisely their relations. The anatomist, who knows that the 

 principal artery of the thigh is the crural, that, continued under the 



* J. Ch. Soemmering, de carports humani fabrica, 6 vols. 8vo. 1S04. 



This work possesses a great deal of merit ; independent of its anatomical correctness,, 

 the author has throughout adhered to the best rules of logic, and analyses the human 

 structure with great clearness and force. Godman. 



