On the applications of science to human health and well-being. Being a lecture, introductory to a course, 'on the application of physics to common life', delivered to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, in June, 1847 / [Alexander Bain].

  • Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the applications of science to human health and well-being. Being a lecture, introductory to a course, 'on the application of physics to common life', delivered to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, in June, 1847 / [Alexander Bain]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mechanical prime movers, and tneir effects are best exhibited in the production of mechanical force. So that each branch hangs upon every other in the way of dependence ; the nature of motion and mechanical force precedes the study of Gravity, and the attrac¬ tion of Gravity is naturally followed up by the attractions that aggregate particles into masses, which necessarily leads to the con¬ sideration of the great counteractive of cohesion, Heat; and Elec¬ tricity and Light require us previously to understand all these With the exception perhaps of Electricity, the things studied in Physics are the most familiar objects in Nature. We are sup¬ ported, surrounded, and acted on in every way by solids, liquids and air; we are always cognisant of rest and movement; and Weight, Heat, and Light are constantly present among our feel¬ ings. Through these influences we have to pilot our existence every moment; they hold the issues of life and death, weal or woe. We cannot help knowing something about such agencies, and the general course that they take. We must be aware that the fall¬ ing rock will crush us, the unstable water give way beneath our feet, that the stormy wind will sweep away the ill-built dwelling. In fact, a certain degree of knowledge of the Physical Agencies is obviously part and parcel of the practical wisdom of the human race. Self-preservation and the various handicrafts are dependent upon this knowledge, and improve as it improves. We are all Natural Philosophers, though few of us may be good ones. The subject, with all our opportunities of knowing its processes, is very abstruse and difficult. Some of its operations cannot be seen by the human eye ; some put on false and delusive appearances ; some are contradictory; so that, notwithstanding the necessity we are under of knowing such things, we never would have come to the exact truth regarding Gravity, Heat, Solidity, Fluidity, &c., had not the search into them been made a craft, distinct from all other crafts, employing a separate class of men selected for their high intel¬ lectual power, and gradually acquiring a set of machinery and methods peculiar to itself. The art of reaching the true secrets of Nature, of obtaining such exact information about its workings as will never deceive us, is a very laborious art, improved from age to age, and containing in its workshops a more extensive array of tools than almost any other. It is by telescopes and microscopes, chronometers, balances, thermometers, barometers, electroscopes, and prisms—by inductions and deductions, experiments and verifi¬ cations, by scientific journals and learned societies,—that what we call the scientific knowledge of Physics has been gained, which differs from the common or unscientific knowledge in being certain where it is vague, and in being ten thousand times more extensive. What we would never have known by unassisted observation, is clearly revealed through the scientific method. Who could have told us the speed of a ray of light or the weight of the moon by their naked human faculties alone ?