The elements of physiology : containing an explanation of the functions of the human body : in which the modern improvements in chemistry, galvanism, and other sciences, are applied to explain the actions of the animal economy / translated from the French of A. Richerand ... by Robert Kerrison.

  • Richerand, A. (Anthelme), 1779-1840.
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of physiology : containing an explanation of the functions of the human body : in which the modern improvements in chemistry, galvanism, and other sciences, are applied to explain the actions of the animal economy / translated from the French of A. Richerand ... by Robert Kerrison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    tioning the opinion of the spleen being the seat ot laughter and gaiety: the sentiments of authors who considered it a counterpoise to the liver, in order to maintain an equili- brium of the hypochondria, and even the opinion of the an- cients, who thought it was the secretory organ of the black bile (atrabilis), &c. Would it not be losing important time in useless discussions? and, as Bacon observes, to give rise to the art of making a thousand questions from one only, by answers that are always less satisfactory, if we were to bring forward similar errors in order to refute them? I have purposely omitted this unnecessary display of information, from a persuasion that good works are as much distinguished by the omission of some things, as by the insertion of others. One of the greatest defects in treatises on Physiology is the continual repetition of the same circumstances; an error which must be undoubtedly attributed to the difficulty of precise distinctions, when speaking of actions that depend on each other, which are often mutually connected, and' performed in the animal economy. In composing a work we should avoid long periods, because they fatigue the mind; digressions, because they alienate it from the subject; too frequent divisions and sub- divisions, because they embarrass it; and repetitions, be- cause they tire the reader: a thing once said in its proper place is clearer than if frequently repeated elsewhere. (Con- dillac, Essai sur VOrigine des Connoissances humaines, 2 partie, sect. ii. chap. 4.) By following these precepts, which • annot be reflected on too much, an author, it is true, ex-