Mammalia / by the Editor.

  • Jardine, William, 1800-1874.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mammalia / by the Editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    my, the progress of which was altogether unex- ampled, and the lahours connected with which just- ly place his scientific even above his professional reputation. In this new line of pursuit, Mr Hunter com- menced by investigating the structure of the more common animals, and making preparations of such parts as appeared, by analogy or otherwise, to throw light upon the animal economy. It was not his in- tention to make dissections of the whole of these animals, hut to institute an inquiry into the various organizations by which the functions of life are per- formed, and thus attain to a knowledge of general principles. The design was nearly as original as it was great, for little, if any thing of the kind, had hitherto been accomplished. It was at this time Mr Hunter detected the ex- istence of lymphatic vessels in birds. He al*o traced further than had previously been done, the ramifica- tions of tin; olfactory nerves, and discovered the course of some of the branches of the fifth pair of nerves — those nerves, a minute attention to the functions of which is even now leading to some of the most interesting discoveries of modern times. His observations on the latter of these subjects were made in the summer of 1754; and in them he had the assistance of Dr Smith, then a student in Lon- don, afterwards Saviiian Professor of Geometry, and Lecturer on Physiology at Oxford. Short notices regarding their labours were published in 1786, in