Claude Bernard / by M. Foster.

  • Foster, M. (Michael), Sir, 1836-1907.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Claude Bernard / by M. Foster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    and observation, this being applicable only to the physical phenomena of life/' Ber- nard's position was that the manifestations of the properties of living bodies are bound up with the existence of certain physico- chemical phenomena, and that the latter furnish the conditions of the former. He insisted that in living, no less than in non- living bodies, natural phenomena are rigor- ously dependent on conditions, and that in the case of both the object of scientific inquiry is to lay bare the connection of the phenomena with the conditions. He ex- pressed himself somewhat as follows : In both biological and chemico-physical studies the inquirer meets with a double set of conditions. He has to consider, on the one hand, the body in which the pheno- mena occur, and, on the other hand, the external circumstances, or the * medium ' by which the manifestations of the pheno-