on Mufcular Motion. 
fcience of medicine, it came into my mind to enquire how far, 
and on what ground, the modern increafe of fcience in ana- 
tomy, chemiftry, mathematics, &c. had forwarded the know- 
ledge of medicine. In the firft place, it is well known to my 
learned Audience, that medicine was in the hands of Greek 
phyficians from the time of Hippocrates, or rather from the 
deftrudtion of the Egyptian monarchy by Cambyses, down 
to the time of the Crufades ; in all this time there was hardiy 
a diffe&ion of the human body, from an opinion about manes ; 
but when it came into Europe again, where this opinion re- 
mained indeed, but in a much lefs degree, anatomy began 
again to flourilh ; and by other means all the other fciences 
ihone forth with a greater luftre than they had ever done in 
any period handed down to us by hiftory of any nation. It was 
obvious therefore to conceive, that the knowledge of the 
ftrudture of the body, and the inveftigation cf the powers of 
matter, made in a more accurate manner, and on a more ex- 
tenfive fcale, would elucidate the dodtrine of the human body, 
and its difeafes, and their treatment, in a new and more per- 
fect manner : to this opinion I mean now to apply the reafon- 
in<r I have before laid down. 
o 
In the ftrudture and phyfiology of the body, two great dis- 
coveries have been made by the moderns ; the circulation of 
the blood ; and the lymphatics, and abforption of the lymph. 
Thefe at once overthrow the ideas of the ancients with regard 
to moft of the functions of the interior parts of the body ; 
which was now conceived by many to be an hydraulic ma- 
chine, and fubjedl to all thofe diforders which were incidental 
to fuch a machine ; and particularly, from various fluids flow- 
ing with great rapidity, through tubes, many of them of 
infinite finenefs, that ftoppages muft often take place, which 
Vol. LX XVIII. F 
were 
