An inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay.

Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization / by John Barclay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    to mention all who have laboured in this field of inquiry, but out of the number whose writings have been perused by the author, to select those who have been the first, or among the first, to sug- gest the opinions, or who have acquired the high- est reputation in supporting them with the greatest ingenuity or learning. Even among these there will be found frequent repetitions of the same ideas, of the same expressions, and the same mo- dified views of the subject. That all who are noticed might be fairly represented, in quoting their sentiments the edition and page or chapter and section of their works are referred to in the notes; or in cases where their writings are rare, of difficult access, or the passages striking, the originals are subjoined. If several well known and distinguished works upon physiology have been passed unnoted, the reason has been, that they treat of animal and ve- getable structures only after they are formed ; and although the experiments which they detail have been highly useful, and have contributed much to illustrate the functions, connexions, and sympathies of the organs composing such structures, yet they furnish no answer to the leading question of the In- quiry, How came these structures to be organized, and to exhibit such astonishing phenomena?