A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions, being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to the members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston.

  • Blakiston, Peyton, 1801-1878.
Date:
[cbetween 1800 and 1899?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the importance of a knowledge of physical science to the members of all professions, being introductory to a course of lectures on the application of acoustics to the discovery of chest diseases, delivered to the members of the medical profession, and of the Philosophical Institution, at Birmingham / by Peyton Blakiston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    instances are daily occurring wherein a knowledge of Natural Philoso- phy proves most valuahle, and wherein its ahsence might entail serious consequences. A case once occurred ai'ising oUt of an accident on the turnpike road. A gentleman driving a gig was met by a stage coach; a collision took place, and he was thrown out of his gig with great violence. A question arose as to whom the blame was attri- butable. It was argued by the driver of the gig that the coach was proceeding at a furious rate, and he instanced the distance at which he had been thrown as a proof of this. On the part of the coach proprie- tors it was proved that the gentleman was precipitated a-head of his gig, and then argued that the distance to which he was thrown was the exact measure of the velocity at which he was driving, and did not at all depend upon that of the coach. The gig being overturned and rendered stationary by coming in contact with the coach, a result which would have equally taken place had it struck against a post, the driver flew forward with the velocity at which he was before driving. The acquired velocity, multiplied by his weight, was the ex- act measure of the momentum with which he struck the ground. Just as when we urge a billiard ball along the table, we do not find it stop the moment we withdraw our hand from behind it; it moves on with a velocity proportioned to the momentum it had acquired at the time we ceased to urge it on, and it matters not to the velocity of the ball, ■whether our hand shall have been stopped by muscular exertion, or by coming in contact with a fixed obstacle. Such is one of the many cases which may come before a Court of Law, involving in them the principles of Natural Philosophy; and, inasmuch as the present advanced state of civilisation in this Country is mainly owing to the practical application of these principles, we may expect that every day they will become more involved and mixed up with those legal enquiries which increase in an almost geometric ratio with the advancement of society. Nor is it less desirable that the Divine should make himself ac- quainted with Natural Philosophy. The unlettered peasant may read the book of nature to a certain extent, but how are its pages illu- minated by the light of Science, what depth of thought does it not reveal, how does it clear the mind, and exalt our views of the Almighty Creator! I mean not a mere adeptness in mathema-