Anatomy and physiology.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomy and physiology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    F 0 E 00 D 000 C 0 B 0000 A 00 superior name contains 12 units of its next inferior name; this system is therefore called the duodecimal system (from the Latin word for twelve). Our mode of counting money is a mix- ture of systems. We divide it into pounds, shillings, and pence, of which 12 pence make a shilling, and 20 shillings a ppfind We write a number of pounds, shillings, and pence, £2:5:11, where £ shows that 2 is pounds, and as shill; the next lower name, and pence the next in succession t lings, the meanings of the 5 and the 11 are obvious. \ ,£h. variation in the value of the units renders the calculation of of money more complex than those with abstract numbers, same is likewise true of all our systems of weights and measuri as we will hereafter find. 14. The systems of arithmetical notation employed by the ancients, were exceedingly inconvenient and imperfect. They served laboriously to register a number that was not very great, but they could not afford the slightest aid in perform- ing arithmetical computation. In the simple calculations which it was absolutely necessary to make, recourse was had to some sort of mechanical contrivance, of which the Abacus of the old Romans, and Swan-pan of the Chinese, are examples. To form a notion of such an instrument, it is only necessary to sup- pose a board with a number of lines drawn upon it, as represented in the figure, and that each pebble or counter placed on the space A denotes 1; each on the space B denotes 10; each on the space C denotes 100; and so on ; so that, talcing the ciphers for counters, the number repre- sented by their disposition in the figure, will be 123142. With such an instrument, (considerably inferior, however,) the Ro- mans made all their heavy calculations,* and noted the results by the letters of their alphabet. This method of writing num- bers we have still retained for some purposes, as for marking the chapters of books, the year of the Christian era, hours on dial- plates, and so forth. The letters employed are I, V, X, L, C, D, M; the I to denote 1; the V, 5; the X, 10 ; the L, 50; the C, 100; the D, 500 ; and the M, 1000. Iq has the same mean- ing as D, and CIo as M. These letters, when thus employed, are called numerals, and the principles upon which they are combined, so as to stand for intermediate and for higher num- bers, are these:— The repetition of a letter denotes the repetition of the num- ber it represents ; thus, III denotes three ones, and XXX de- notes three tens, and so on. When a letter expressing a less number is placed after a greater, the values of the numerals are to be taken together. Thus, XI means ten and one, or eleven; LX means 50 and 10, or 60. When a numeral of a less value is placed before one of greater, its value is to be deducted. Thus, IV means 5 less 1, or 4; XL means 50 less 10, or 40. When 3 is anrexed to Iq, it increases the value of that char- acter ten times. Thus, Iqo is 5000, and 1333 is 60,000. In like manner, CIq is increased in value ten times by prefixing C and annexing Q. Thus, CCI33 is 10,000, and CCCI33Q is 100,000. Lastly, a line drawn over a numeral increases its value a thou- sand times. Thus, X stands for 10,000. The following table exhibits these principles more fully:— Units. I 1 Tens. X Hundreds. C Thousands. II ...9. XX .... ?() cc MM or H TTY XXX ccc MMM or ill TUT nr TV A CCCC or CD MM.MM or IV V L D or Io loo or V. VI LX DC or IoC IOOM or VI .6000 VII ... T YY nr.r. nr ... loo MM or VII VIII .... Lxxx.,.80 DCCCor IoCCC.,.800 IOOMMM or VIII. ..8000 IX xc.... CM IjOMMMMorlX. ..9000 ** The word calculation is derived from calculus, a pebble, pebbles being origi- nally used on the abacus. In process of luxury, tali or little dies made of ivory, were used instead of pebbles, and small silver coins instead of counters. The following particular cases of served:— combination, may be ob* DCCXIX for...., 719 VlICCfor 2t CDXC, or XD..., 490 XXXXC .39 | MDCCCXLI ...1841 | CCI00XL..... ..,00,040 .ANATOMY AND •Ll R fi V '• PHYSIOLOGY, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. There is no subject in which the people are so deeply interested as to know the structure and functions of their own bodies. And yet there is nothing of which they are in general so deplorably ignorant. In the pulpit they sometimes hear the exclamation, “ that they are fearfully and wonderfully made,” but it consti- tutes the sum and substance of their anatomical knowledge. How astonishing that mankind should exhibit so little curiosity to know themselves ! Why do this apathy and ignorance pre- vail? It is because anatomy and physiology do not form an ele- mentary branch of juvenile education. Juvenile teachers do not understand them, and therefore cannot impart them. In consonance with the ignorance and practice of the old pedagogues of our ancestors, children are still compelled to waste too much of the best portion of their early lives in the useless study of guttural sounds, obsolete words, dead languages, Greek and Latin poetry, ecclesiastical dogmas, and abstruse catechisms; and this is boastingly misnamed a useful education. What a misno- mer of knowledge! It is like gravely presenting an apprentice-boy a few childish toys to play with, instead of giving him useful tools and teaching him his trade. It is like teaching astrology instead of astronomy—alchemy instead of chemistry—metaphysics in- stead of phrenology—magic instead of science—charlatanerie in- stead of surgery—and superstition instead of wisdom. It is making mankind move forever in one limited circle, and beyond it everything seems dark and mysterious. It is teaching them to quake like children at a thunder-storm, instead of disclosing the laws of electric phenomena—pointing the iron rod to the clouds, and directing the lightning to pass harmlessly into the earth. It is glorious for mankind that some philosophers have boldly over- leapt the prescribed limits of their scholastic education, fear- lessly examined the structure and laws of matter, and honestly explained them to the people. Galileo, Franklin, and Sir Isaac Newton, have burst the gates of superstition, opened to us the lucid windows of heaven, and we now behold the celestial phe- nomena with rational delight, and understand them. Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood only by examin- ing the human body, and studying its laws—not by bowing down with reverence to the dogmas of schools—and he banished from anatomical cloisters the hypothetic jargon of licensed empiri- cism, and in despite of medical anathemas and persecution, gloriously triumphed. Jenner unfolded the safety and utility of vaccine inoculation, and preserved the lives of millions of human beings, notwithstanding the outrages and selfishness of all the medical faculties of Europe combined to destroy it. Hundreds of anatomists, in almost every kingdom, have secretly dissected dead bodies, and disclosed their structure and functions to their pupils, although the arm of popular violence was often raised to annihilate them. In our own land, Sir Charles Bell has reaped immortal fame by his anatomical researches, and has explained the mechanism and laws of the animal machine to chirurgeons with as much accuracy and simplicity, as Watt has unfolded to engineers his extraordinary, yet simple, hydraulic engine. In one short essay, very little knowledge can be conveyed of the structure and functions of the human body; it is only by commencing at the beginning of the subject, and proceeding with a regular series of articles in succeeding monthly journals to its termination, that we can learn to comprehend ourselves ; and, after minute investigation, the skilful arrangement, symmetry, uses, and beauty of the animal machine will be rationally per-