Botanists From England

"We have seen in the Course of these Experiments, the Quantity of Tar that there is in Tar-Water; and the great Difference of that Quantity, made with different kinds of Tar, and different Degrees of Stirring. Now, since, notwithstanding these Quantities of Tar, and the additional more subtile volatile Oil, which flies off in Evaporation, it has yet undoubtedly proved an efficacious Remedy in many Cases and Instances; it may hence be reasonably concluded, that the Medicinal Virtue of the Water does not reside solely in the Acid, but partly also in the unctuous oily Parts, which are so temper'd by the Acid, as in some Cases to prevent their heating too much."

"But whereas in some Cases, it is observed by Physicians to be too inflammatory, it is probable, that heating Quality, may in some Degree be abated, by making Tar-Water with the Strainer... without Stirring; thereby to divest the Water of a good Quantity of its grosser, tarrish Particles, and yet retain whatever Powers it may have to do good."

"It is hoped, that the Light given by these Researches, may be of use in skilful Hands, for regulating and adapting the due Proportions of the acid, and the oily Principles, to different Cases and Constitutions. This is the proper Province of the Physician, which I am no ways qualified to meddle in."

"Man, not contented with the Liquors, which his bountiful Creator intending for his Comfort, has wisely tempered with such a due Proportion of Strength, as would (if taken in Moderation,) make his Heart glad, has unhappily found Means to extract, from what God provided for his Refreshment, a most intoxicating and baneful Spirit, to which, in a great measure, is owing the remarkable Increase of Drunkenness of late Years; which Vice reigns to a most enormous Degree, among the habitual Drinkers of Gin, Brandy, and other Distilled Liquors; which are found to be most pernicious and destructive. For at the same shat they coagulate and thicken the Blood, they also contract and narrow the Blood-Vesels; which has, in fact, been found to be true, by Experiments I have purposely made with Brandy, on the Blood and Blood-Vesels of Animals."

"Whence we may evidently see the Reason why those Liquors do so frequently cause those Obstructions and Stoppages in the Liver; which occasion the Jaundice, Dropsy, and many other fatal Diseases."

"It is in like manner also that they destroy and burn up the Lungs. Hence also it is, that by frequently contracting and shrivelling, and then soon after relaxing, they weaken and wear out the Substance and Coats of the Stomach, on which they more immediately prey, every time they are drank."

"Hence likewise it is, that these spirituous Liquors rarely fail to destroy the Appetite and Digestion of those, who habituate themselves to them; for by drying up, and spoiling the Nerves, they make them insensible; they destroy also many of the very fine Blood Vessels, especially where their Fibres are most tender, as in the Brain; by which means, the Memory and intellectual Faculties are ruined: Nay, by inflaming the Blood, and disordering the Blood-Vessels and Nerves, they vitiate and deprave the Natural Temper."

"Could anything increase the pleasure I have in a literary intercourse with you, it would be to find that it answered your end in promoting the publick good. ... It does honour to those noble and other worthy personages that join you in acts of such extensive humanity as the introduction of ventilators into hospitals, prisons, ships of war, and transports, &c. as they must necessarily render the miseries of the first more supportable, and the close and constant confinement of the others less prejudicial and fatal to their health and life. It is to be lamented, that they are not more generally made use of... Those of your invention which I had were of singular service to us; they kept the inside of the ship cool, sweet, dry, and healthy: The number of slaves which I buried was very inconsiderable, and not one white man of our crew (which was thirty four) during a voyage of fifteen months; an instance very uncommon. The 340 negroes were very sensible of the benefits of a constant ventilation, and were always displeased when it was omitted. Even the exercise had an advantage not to be despised among people so much confined. ...Could I but see the immoderate use of spirituous liquors less general, and the benefit of ventilators more known and experienced, I might then hope to see mankind better and happier."

"The following Character of the late Dr. Hales, may he relied upon in every particular, and it is to he regretted that we have not more particulars concerning his useful Life from the same hand. On Sunday the 4th instant [1761], died, at his parsonage-house at Tedington, universally lamented, in the 83rd year of his age, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Hales, F.R.S., member of the royal academy of sciences at Paris and clerk of the closet to her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales. If any man might ever be said to have devoted his whole life to the public, to all mankind, it was Dr. Hales. He possessed a native innocence and simplicity of manners, which the characters of other men, and the customs of the world, could never alter; and though he often met with many unworthy objects of his kind and charitable offices, yet they never once lessened his natural and unwearied disposition of doing good and relieving distress. His temper, as well as the powers of his understanding, were happily fitted for the improvement of natural philosophy, possessing, as he did, in an uncommon degree, that industry and patient thinking, which Sir Isaac Newton used modestly to declare, was his own only secret by which he was enabled so fortunately to trace the wonderful analysis of nature. Dr. Hales began his inquiries into natural knowledge very early in life, and he continued it uniformly as his darling amusement, being engaged in experiments until within a few weeks of his death. His industry had this farther excellence, that it was always pointed at the general good of his fellow creatures, agreeable to the almost unlimited benevolence of his heart; and being animated with the success of some of his more useful discoveries, his knowledge appeared to everybody near him to feed his mind with a nourishment which gave him, in the decline of his life, and even in its last stages that vigor and serenity of understanding, and clearness of ideas, which so few possess, even [in] the flower of manhood; and which he used often to say, he valued as the most perfect of human pleasures. ...There are two things in his character, which particularly distinguish him from almost every other man; the first was, that his mind was so habitually bent on acquiring knowledge, that, having what he thought an abundant income, he was solicitous to avoid any farther preferment in the church, lest his time and attention might thereby be diverted from his other favorite and useful occupations. The other feature of his character was no less singular: He could look even upon wicked men, and those who did him unkind offices without any emotion of particular indignation; not for want of discernment or sensibility; but he used to consider them only as those experiments which, upon trial, he found could never be applied to any useful purpose, and which he therefore calmly and dispationately laid aside."

"Green s serene retreat, For Philosophic studies meet, Where the good Pastor, Stephen Hales Weigh'd moisture in a pair of scales, To ling'ring death put s and dogs, And stripp'd the skin from living frogs (Nature he loved, her works intent To search, and sometimes, to torment!)"

"[T]he first important conception to be grasped by the student is that of the blood pressure, and the first experiment is designed to demonstrate its existence and to estimate its amount. ...It consists in connecting the of a dog to a long glass tube. Into this tube the blood mounts up and up to a height of five or six feet and then oscillates up or down with each contraction or relaxation of the heart. Such a tube... is called... the "Hales manometer" after its inventor... Dr. Hales."

"During his residence in the college, a period of about twelve years (1696-1708 or 1709), he applied himself with great zeal to the study of natural and experimental philosophy."

"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.""

"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..."

"In Buddha, says Sir Charles Eliot, “the world is not thought of as the handiwork of a divine personality, nor the moral law as his will. The fact that religion can exist without these ideas is of capital importance.”"

"Indian religions have more spirituality and a greater sense of the Infinite than our western creeds and more liberality. They are not merely tolerant but often hold that different classes of mankind have their own rules of life and suitable beliefs and that he who follows such partial truths does no wrong to the greater and all-inclusive truths on which his circumstances do not permit him to fix his attention ... and are more penetrated with the idea that civilization means a gentle and enlightened temper - an idea sadly forgotten in these days of war."

"“Though these narratives,” says Sir Charles Eliot, “are compilations which accepted new matter during several centuries, I see no reason to doubt that the oldest stratum contains the recollections of those who had seen and heard the master.”"

"The chief processes for the improvement of soils which may be discussed here are: liming, claying and marling, warping, paring and burning, and green manuring. Most of these more or less directly improve the land by adding to it certain plant food constituents which are lacking, but the effect of each process is in reality very complex. In the majority of cases the good results obtained are more particularly due to the setting free of " dormant " or " latent " food constituents and to the amelioration of the texture of the soil, so that its aeration, drainage, temperature and water-holding capacity are altered for the better."

"Among the world's crops wheat is pre-eminent both in regard to its antiquity and its importance as a food of mankind. In prehistoric times it was cultivated throughout Europe, and was one of the most valuable cereals of ancient Persia, Greece, and Egypt."

"The wheat taxonomist has a difficult job. The variation in Triticum/Aegilops is extraordinary and one has only to look through the enormous herbarium collection of wheat that John Percival amassed to see the diversity. Hybridization and polyploidy have occurred frequently and been assisted by man over a long period, complicating the systematics enormously."

"WHEN a botanist first enters on the investigation of so remote a country as New Holland, he finds himself as it were in a new world. He can scarcely meet with any certain fixed points from whence to draw his analogies; and even those that appear most promising, are frequently in danger of misleading, instead of informing him. Whole tribes of plants, which at first sight seem familiar to his acquaintance, as occupying links in Nature's chain, on which he has been accustomed to depend, prove, on a nearer examination, total strangers, with other configurations, other economy, and other qualities; not only all the species that present themselves are new, but most of the genera, and even natural orders."

"We wish not to be alone in the universe, Dorthy, and this drives people to invent things that are not really there."

"Zithsa hunter claim they sometimes see man-shaped creatures in the lowlands. Mist demons, the hunters call them, and say that they are the ghosts of the fabled lost race. I say they are half vodka, half imagination."