The biography of Stephen Hales, D.D., F.R.S / by Percy M. Dawson.

  • Dawson, Percy M. (Percy Millard), 1873-
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The biography of Stephen Hales, D.D., F.R.S / by Percy M. Dawson. 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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    (From The Johns Hopkins Hospital BulTjEtin, Vol. XV, No. 159, June, 1904.1 THE BIOGRAPHY OF STEPHEN HALES, D.D., F.R.S/ By Percy M. Dawson, M. D., Associate Professor of Physiology, Johns Haplcins University. Just as the name of William Harvey stands foremost ia [185] that chapter of physiology which deals with the circulation, so does the name of Stephen Hales begin the sub-chapter on haBmodynamics. In this sub-chapter the first important conception to be grasped by the student is that of the blood pressure, and the first experiment is designed to demonstrate its existence and to estimate its amount. This experiment is familiar to us all. It consists in connecting the femoral artery of a dog to a long glass tube. Into this tube the blood mounts up and up to a height of five or six feet and then oscillates up or down with each contraction or relaxation of the heart. Such a tube, as the student already knows, is called a manometer, and he is then told that this particular form of manometer, so simple in principle and construction, is called the Hales manometer after its inventor, a certain Dr. Hales. Thus every student of physiology becomes acquainted with the name of Hales, but to most of us it is a name and nothing more. Stephen Hales was born in 1677. His grandfather. Sir Eobert Hales, of Beckesbourn in Kent, was made baronet by Charles II. Sir Robert's eldest son, Thomas, married Mary, the daughter and heiress of Richard Wood. They had many children, and Stephen was their sixth son. Of Stephen's boyhood there is nothing known. In his nine- 'Read before the Johns Hopkins Hospital Historical Club. April 20, 1903.