Micrographia. Robert Hooke
Читать онлайн книгу.
is oftentimes further promoted also by the help of Burning-glasses, and the like, which collect and unite the radiating heat. Thus the roughness and smoothness of a Body is made much more sensible by the help of a Microscope, then by the most tender and delicate Hand. Perhaps, a Physitian might, by several other tangible proprieties, discover the constitution of a Body as well as by the Pulse. I do but instance in these, to shew what possibility there may be of many others, and what probability and hopes there were of finding them, if this method were followed; for the Offices of the five Senses being to detect either the subtil and curious Motions propagated through all pellucid or perfectly homogeneous Bodies; Or the more gross and vibrative Pulse communicated through the Air and all other convenient mediums, whether fluid or solid: Or the effluvia of Bodies dissolv'd in the Air; Or the particles of bodies dissolv'd or dissoluble in Liquors, or the more quick and violent shaking motion of heat in all or any of these: whatsoever does any wayes promote any of these kinds of criteria, does afford a way of improving some one sense. And what a multitude of these would a diligent Man meet with in his inquiries? And this for the helping and promoting the sensitive faculty only.
Next, as for the Memory, or retentive faculty, we may be sufficiently instructed from the written Histories of civil actions, what great assistance may be afforded the Memory, in the committing to writing things observable in natural operations. If a Physitian be therefore accounted the more able in his Faculty, because he has had long experience and practice, the remembrance of which, though perhaps very imperfect, does regulate all his after actions: What ought to be thought of that man, that has not only a perfect register of his own experience, but it grown old with the experience of many hundreds of years, and many thousands of men.
And though of late, men, beginning to be sensible of this convenience, have here and there registred and printed some few Centuries, yet for the most part they are set down very lamely and imperfectly, and, I fear, many times not so truly, they seeming, several of them, to be design'd more for Ostentation then publique use: For, not to instance, that they do, for the most part, omit those Experiences they have made, wherein their Patients have miscarried, it is very easie to be perceiv'd, that they do all along hyperbolically extol their own Prescriptions, and vilifie those of others. Notwithstanding all which, these kinds of Histories are generally esteem'd useful, even to the ablest Physitian.
What may not be expected from the rational or deductive Faculty that is furnisht with such Materials, and those so readily adapted, and rang'd for use, that in a moment, at 'twere, thousands of Instances, serving for the illustration, determination, or invention, of almost any inquiry, may be represented even to the sight? How neer the nature of Axioms must all those Propositions be which are examin'd before so many Witnesses? And how difficult will it be for any, though never so subtil an error in Philosophy, to scape from being discover'd, after it has indur'd the touch, and so many other tryals?
What kind of mechanical way, and physical invention also is there requir'd that might not this may be found out? The Invention of a way to find the Longitude of places is easily perform'd, and that to as great perfection as is desir'd, or to at great an accurateness as the Latitude of places can be found at Sea; and perhaps yet also to a greater certainty then that has been hitherto found, as I shall very speedily freely manifest to the world. The way of flying in the Air seems principally unpracticable, by reason of the want of strength in humane muscles; if therefore that could be suppli'd, it were, I think, easie to make twenty contrivances to perform the office of Wings: What Attempts also I have made for the supplying that Defect, and my successes therein, which, I think, are wholly new, and not inconsiderable, I shall in another place relate.
'Tis not unlikely also, but that Chymists, if they followed this method, might find out their so much sought for Alkahest. What an universal Menstruum, which dissolves all sorts of Sulphureous Bodies, I have discover'd (which hat not been before taken notice of as such) I have shewn in the sixteenth Observation.
What a prodigious variety of Inventions in Anatomy has this latter Age afforded, even in our own Bodies in the very Heart, by which we live, and the Brain, which is the seat of our knowledge of other things? witness all the excellent Works of Pecquet, Bartholinus, Billius, and many others; and at home, of Doctor Harvy, Doctor Ent, Doctor Willis, Doctor Glisson. In Celestial Observations we have far exceeded all the Antients, even the Chaldeans and Egyptians themselves, whose vast Plains, high Towers, and clear Air, did not give them so great advantages over us, as have over them by our Glasses. By the help of which, they have been very much outdone by the famous Galileo, Hevelius, Zulichem; and our own Countrymen, Mr. Rook, Doctor Wren, and the great Ornament of our Church and Nation, the Lord Bishop of Exeter. And to say no more in Aerial Discoveries, there has been a wonderful progress made by the Noble Engine of the most Illustrious Mr. Boyle, whom it becomes me to mention with all honour, not only as my particular Patron, but as the Patron of Philosophy it self; which he every day increases by his Labours, and adorns by his Example.
The good success of all these great Men, and many others, and the now seemingly great obviousness of most of their and divers other Inventions, which from the beginning of the world have been, as 'twere, trod on, and yet not minded till these last inquisitive Ages (an Argument that there may be yet behind multitudes of the like) puts me in mind to recommend such Studies, and the prosecution of them by such methods, to the Gentlemen of our Nation, whose leisure makes them fit to undertake, and the plenty of their fortunes to accomplish, extraordinary things in this way. And I do not only propose this kind of Experimental Philosophy as matter of high rapture and delight of the mind, but even as a material and sensible Pleasure. So vast it the variety of Objects which will come under their Inflections, so many different wayes there are of handling them, so great is the satisfaction of finding out new things, that I dare compare the contentment which they will injoy, not only to that of contemplation, but even to that which most men prefer of the very Senses themselves.
And if they will please to take any incouragement from so mean and so imperfect endeavours as mine, upon my own experience, I can assure them, without arrogance, That there has not been any inquiry or Problem in Mechanicks, that I have hitherto propounded to my self, but by a certain method (which I may on some other opportunity explain) I have been able presently to examine the possibility of it; and if so, as easily to excogitate divers wayes of performing it: And indeed it is possible to do as much by this method in Mechanicks, as by Algebra can be perform'd in Geometry. Nor can I at all doubt, but that the same method is as applicable to Physical Enquiries, and as likely to find and reap thence at plentiful a crop of Inventions; and indeed there seems to be no subject so barren, but may with this good husbandry be highly improv'd.
Toward the prosecution of this method in Physical Inquiries, I have here and there gleaned up an handful of Observations, in the collection of most of which I made use of Microscopes, and some other Glasses and Instruments that improve the sense; which way I have herein taken, not that there are not multitudes of useful and pleasant Observables, yet uncollected, obvious enough without the helps of Art, but only to promote the use of Mechanical helps for the Senses, both in the surveying the already visible World, and for the discovery of many others hitherto unknown, and to make us, with the great Conqueror, to be affected that we have not yet overcome one World when there are so many others to be discovered, every considerable improvement of Telescopes or Microscopes producing new Worlds and Terra-Incognita's to our view.
The Glasses I used were of our English make, but though very good of the kind, yet far short of what might be expected, could we once find a way of making