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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    [186] The work and writings of Hales embrace a very broad field, which includes chemistry, botany, physiology, medicine and public hygiene, not to mention sermons and temperance tracts. In 1719 he reported before the Eoyal Society some experi- ments which he had lately made on the effect of the sun's warmth in raising the sap in trees. This procured him the thanks of the Society, which also requested him to continue his research. With this request, writes the biographer,' which was like the charge given by Pharaoh's daughter to the mother of Moses, to take care of her son. Hales complied with great pleasure, and on the 14th of June, 1735, he exhibited a treatise in which he gave an account of his progress. At the request of the Society this treatise was published an appeared in 1727 under the following title: Vegetable Staticks; or, an account of some statical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables: being an Essay towards a Natural History of Vegetation; also a Specimen of an Attempt to analyse the Air by a great Variety of chemio-statical Experiments, which were read at several Meetings of the Royal Society. The Vegetable Staticks was so well received that a second edition was published in 1731. In the preface of this edition the author promised to add a second volume, and in 1733 he published his second famous work, entitled Statical Essays: containing Hsemostaticks, or an Account of some Hy- draulick and Hydrostatical Experiments made on the Blood and Blood-Vessels of Animals; also an Account of some Ex- periments on Stones in the Kidney and Bladder; with an Enquiry into the Nature of these anomalous concretions. To which is added an Appendix containing Observations & Ex- periments relating to several Subjects in the first Volume. These two books were again edited under the title, Statical Essays, Vols. I & II. Through the Statical Essays Hales came to have an international reputation, for not only was the first volume translated into French by Buffon, and the second into the • Peter Collinson, 1694-1768, F. R. S., 1728; naturalist, antiquary, and merchant; Quaker.