Principles of human physiology, with their chief applications to pathology, hygiene and forensic medicine : especially designed for the use of students / by William B. Carpenter.

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of human physiology, with their chief applications to pathology, hygiene and forensic medicine : especially designed for the use of students / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    introduction of as many important facts as could be included within moderate limits. In every instance, he has endeavoured to make his statements clear and precise, without being* formal or dogmatical; and definite enough to admit of practical applica- tion, without appearing to be unimproveable by further enquiry. Physiology is essentially a science of progress ; and it must happen that much of what is now regarded as established truth, will need great modification to be brought into accordance with the results of new enquiries. It is very desirable, therefore, that the Student should not be made to think so confidently of his acquirements, as to be indisposed to receive new information, even though it should tend to diminish their value. There are several departments of the science which are, at the present time, in what may be termed a transition-state. Such may be said of the Physiology of Nutrition, which is fast emerging from the deepest obscurity into clearer day; and, as might be expected, there are several questions which can scarcely be at present regarded in any other than a very doubtful light. This is the case, for example, in regard to Dr* Barry’s views respecting the transformation of the Blood-corpuscles into organised tissues (§ 578); these have not yet commanded general assent; but they appear to the Author to possess too much inherent probability to be lightly set aside. The Author is not without hope, that, in several parts of his Treatise, suggestions may be found, that will lead some of his Headers to original researches on the numerous topics to which they refer; and he considers that he will be thus doing greater service to the public, than if he were himself to aim at embracing the whole range of enquiry thus indicated. With these views, he has not hesitated to express uncertainty where he has himself felt it; and he trusts that what he has thought him- self justified in stating with more positiveness, will thus be entitled to greater weight. On one point,—the distinct existence of the grey fibres constituting the Organic system of Nerves,—he deems it right here to say, that the text (§111) expresses a greater degree of certainty than it would be probably right to assume, on a question at present so controverted. The fact is, that there is so strong a resemblance between these fibres, and those of ordi- nary fibro-cellular tissue, that it is not easy to distinguish them;