MEMOIR OR BARON HALLER. 
31 
which truth would permit in combating his opinions. 
But M. Hamberger’s sensitiveness was extreme. At 
Jena, he had established a little empire, and the 
applause of his numerous students made him regard 
my arguments as so many premeditated insults. 
He defended himself with asperity, and the more so, 
as Gottingen was enjoying a popularity which could 
not he shared by many of the German universities.” 
This discussion led to a very keen and widely ex- 
tended controversy, in which many of the eminent 
men of the day took a part. It led Haller, and his 
friends and pupils, into numerous and varied sets 
of observations, which have in a great measure 
formed the foundation of the opinions now univer- 
sally received. We quote one passage on the point 
from his Physiology : — “ Is air contained between 
the lungs and the thorax ? Is this air rarefied in in- 
spiration, and afterwards becoming condensed, and 
compressing the lungs, does it cause expiration ? 
Is this opinion confirmed by the analogy of birds, 
of which it is strictly true? Every thing concurs 
to confute this opinion : behind the pleura in man 
and quadrupeds, living and dead, the nakod lungs 
are visible, without any intermediate space betwixt 
them ; and on perforating the pleura, the lungs 
retract towards the spine as soon as the air comes 
in contact with them. In birds, the lungs and 
their coverings being pervious, admit the air through 
large holes into the cavity of the thorax. But in 
these there is a manifest space betwixt the lungs 
and the pleura, which would be equally manifest in 
