Stephen Hales

"In William Stukeley... who came in 1704 to live in Corpus Christi College, Hales seems to have found a very congenial companion, though Stukeley was the younger by ten years. ...The two friends also studied anatomy together, dissecting frogs, dogs and other animals; while Hales devised an ingenious method of obtaining a preparation of the lungs in lead. They moreover studied chemistry and "repeated many of Mr. Boyle’s experiments" and prepared various substances, "some of use, some of curiosity.""

"Hales and Stukeley... were also witnesses of the chemical operations which Vigani was accustomed to perform in a room in Trinity College... formerly... the laboratory of Sir Isaac Newton."

"Hales was also a student of astronomy and constructed a brass machine for demonstrating the movements of the planets, and of this Stukeley made a sketch."

"The work and writings of Hales embrace a very broad field, which includes chemistry, botany, , medicine and public hygiene, not to mention sermons and temperance tracts."

"In 1719 he reported before the Royal Society some experiments which he had lately made on the effect of the sun’s warmth in raising the sap in trees. ...[T]he Society... requested him to continue his research. [Peter Collinson ] writes, "...Hales complied with great pleasure, and on the 14th of June, 1725, he exhibited a treatise in which he gave an account of his progress." At the request of the Society this treatise was published an appeared in 1727 under the following title: "Vegetable Staticks...""

"The "Vegetable Staticks" was so well received that a second edition was published in 1731."

"[I]n 1733 he published his second famous work, entitled "Statical Essays: containing Haemostaticks, or an Account of some Hy- draulick and Hydrostatical Experiments made on the Blood and Blood-Vessels of Animals...""

"These two books were again edited under the title, "Statical Essays, Vols. I & II.""

"Through the "Statical Essays" Hales came to have an international reputation... [being] translated into French... German and Italian..."

"[T]he essential and distinguishing characteristics of these essays... would be that the work... is quantitative. ...Qualitative results were never sufficient; Hales must needs weigh and measure everything, and every phenomenon must be expressed numerically so as to serve as the basis of calculations and thus lead to new discoveries."

"Hales’ life fell very early in the history of scientific chemistry, in that period when experimentation, though often suggestive, is usually indefinite and always incomplete."

"Hales made a careful study of gases, or, as he called them, "air.""

"To him air was an element which entered into the composition of a surprising number of substances, and so he studied the generation and absorption of "air" during , and many other chemical processes."

"In his experiments he must have prepared , oxygen, , and , and though they were all "air" to him, he introduced some important improvements in the way of chemical apparatus and manipulations, and was perhaps the first chemist to employ quantitative methods."

"Sachs... writes that in the revival of which took place in the eighteenth century, the work of Hales was the most original and most important contribution."

"It was in honor of Hales that John Ellis, the "bright star in Natural History," as Linnaeus has called him, named a newly discovered genus of plants '."

"In 1739 he published an volume entitled: "Philosophical experiments: containing useful and necessary instructions for such as undertake long Voyages at Sea..." This work, which contained so many useful instructions for voyagers, was dedicated to the Lords of the Admiralty."

"In [1739] he reported to the Royal Society an account of some "further experiments towards the discovery of a medicine for dissolving the stone in the kidneys and bladder, and preserving meat in long voyages," and it was for this that he received the []. In the following year he published an account of some experiments and observations on Miss Stephens’ medicines for dissolving stone, in which their dissolving power was inquired into and demonstrated."

"The contributions of Hales to the "Philosophical Transactions" were numerous and dealt with a great variety of topics. ...the following [9 not shown here] may be enumerated... Whenever these papers seemed to him to be of value to the public or to deal with topics of general interest, he would publish a popularized version in the Gentleman's Magazine. But besides these abstracts this magazine contains numerous articles from his pen, of which the following [5 not shown here] are the more important..."

"The year 1741 is ever memorable in the history of Hygiene, for it was in this year that three persons... conceived the idea of constructing ventilators. These... were [Samuel] Sutton, a coffee-house keeper in Aldersgate Street; Martin Triewald, captain of mechanics to the King of Sweden, and the Rev. Dr. Hales."

"The methods devised by Hales and Triewald seem to have been identical, and the history of their invention is told by Hales in his book on ventilators published in 1743."

"For this [ventilator] invention Triewald was granted a privilege for life by the King and Senate of Sweden. He then wrote a "deduction" on the usefulness of ventilators... distributed among... naval officers. This "deduction" was read before the Royal Society in 1742. In it Triewald recommends the use of ventilators "in Hospitals and Barracks for the sick, Men-of-War and Hospital Ships.""

"The Hales ventilators were nothing more than ingeniously contrived bellows which sucked the foul air from the rooms or spaces to be ventilated and blew it out of doors. When large, these bellows were worked by means of a wind-mill; when small, by hand."

"Not content with playing the part of a mere inventor, Hales added to that role... philanthropist, for seeing that it would be of great benefit to humanity, he wrote constantly on the subject and used what influence he had to obtain the introduction of his ventilators. Success crowned his efforts. In a few years his ventilators had been put not only into Newgate and the Savoy prison, but also into the Winchester Gaol, the Durham County Gaol, then the Gaols of Shrewsbury, Northampton and Maidstone. The results were remarkable. During the first four months after their introduction into Newgate, the death rate was reduced by more than fifty per cent, while in the Savoy prison the rate fell from fifty or a hundred per annum to one or two per annum. Equally gratifying were the results at the smallpox hospitals. ...here the mortality was soon reduced to two-thirds of what it had formerly been."

"The Gentleman's Magazine... contains... An Account of several methods to preserve Corn well by Ventilation: June, 1746, XVI... accompanied with plates [it] contained a careful and minute description of the construction of granaries, with calculations regarding the size of the ventilator and the amount of air required for drying a certain amount of a given kind of grain in layers of such a depth in granaries of such a size and so forth... showing his painstaking accuracy and his detailed knowledge of the subject."

"The ventilator... invented by [Samuel] Sutton... was "of another construction," being designed "to draw off the foul air on board ships by means of the cook-room fire." Sutton did not fully recognize the importance of his idea, so that it would have been forgotten had it not been for Dr. Mead, who brought it to the attention of the Royal Society."

"[T]he Gentlemans Magazine says, "...Dr. Hales['s] ventilators came more easily into use for many purposes of the greatest importance... particularly for keeping corn sweet..." ...Duhamel du Monceau ...at the suggestion of Hales, equipped one of the [French] public granaries with a wind-mill and ventilators to draw up air through the grain. It was probably through Duhamel's influence that Hales persuaded to introduce his system of ventilating into the French prisons in which British soldiers were confined."

"Dr. Holmes has made us all familiar with the subject of Bishop Berkeley’s "Tar Water." ...Hales shows a praiseworthy caution. He does not deny its efficacy, but he does not advocate its use. ...In the book ["An Account of some Experiments and Observations on Tar-Water..."]... he confines himself entirely to the chemistry and preparation of tar water."

"Among the subjects which Hales regarded as of great importance was the liquor question. ...[In "Distilled Spirituous Liquors the Bane of the Nation"] he tries to arouse the interest of the landed gentry and the farming population on the ground that dram drinking decreases the appetite and lowers the demand for food. Then... he declares that... the country loses £600,000 per annum owing to the distilleries in London alone."

"Under his supervision the water supply of the [] parish was greatly improved..."