Elements of physics, or, Natural philosophy : general and medical, written for universal use, in plain or non-technical language, and containing new disquisitions and practical suggestions / by Neil Arnott.

  • Arnott, Neil, 1788-1874.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of physics, or, Natural philosophy : general and medical, written for universal use, in plain or non-technical language, and containing new disquisitions and practical suggestions / by Neil Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    37/746
    ever considerable knowledge of nature exists, debasing and gloomy superstition must cease. It is not the abject terror of a slave which is inspired by contemplating the majesty and power of our God, displayed in his works, but a senti- ment akin to the tender regard which leads a favoured child to approach with confidence a wise and indulgent parent. It remains for the author now only to say a few words with respect to the present work. He was originally led to the undertaking with the view of supplying the desideratum in medical literature, of a treatise on Medical Physics; but soon perceiving that the preliminary investigation of Gene- ral Physics, necessary to adapt the work to medical readers, would require to be nearly as extensive as if it were for general readers, and reflecting that every person of liberal education must now possess such a book, not to be read once and then thrown aside as a novel is, but to be fre- quently consulted as a manual, he determined to make his book as complete and as extensively useful as pos- sible. He has been encouraged, during his labour, by the belief, that the growing light of science, which now exhibits more clearly the natural relations of the difi^erent depart- ments of study, as attempted to be pourtrayed in the preceding pages, might enable him to avoid some of the defects of former elementary treatises, and to add features of novelty and improvement to his own. The sec- tions on Animal Physics were, of course, written for me- dical men ; and a great service will be rendered by the work, if it only awakens them to a just sense of the im- portance of Physics as one of the foundations of their art. But even for general readers there are few parts of these sections which the author would exclude. There is nothing more admirable in nature than the structure and functions of the human body, and there are many reasons why no liberal mind should be careless of the study. The details here given are not more anatomical than the illustrations