Arbuthnot's Opinion?

gasfolk

"The rather strange phrase "philosophical furniture" suggests how purchasers of barometers in the early eighteenth century were inspired to act and to view themselves as experimental philosophers. They were encouraged by Neve and a number of other writers (including Gustavus Parker, John Patrick, and John Smith) to prepare the mercury and fill the barometer tube with care, to take observations methodically and to record them, and to regard themselves as participants in an experimental enterprise led by such natural philosophers as Boyle, Hooke, and even Isaac Newton. At the same time they acted as observers, however, the users of barometers were also expected to respond as experimental subjects, because of the way the instrument reflected human experiences of changing atmospheric conditions. As they watched the movement of the mercury in the tube, observers were also monitoring their own health and feelings, since they were told that the instrument’s behavior bore upon them. It was in this setting that the figure of the "human barometer" was born: the individual whose reactions to changes in the atmosphere were mirrored by the rising and sinking of the mercury level. As early as 1673, Boyle had reasoned from experiments with the air-pump that many liquids contained dissolved air that would be released under diminished pressure. Thus, he was "prone to suspect, that the very Alterations of the Atmosphere in point of weight may, in some cases, have some not contemptible Operations even upon mens Sickness or Health."{6} JOHN ARBUTHNOT, whose ESSAY CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF AIR ON HUMAN BODIES (1733) became one of the founding texts of Enlightenment research on climate and health, made the same connection: "I have observ’d very sensible Effects of sudden falls of the Mercury in the Barometer in tender People, and all the Symptoms they would have felt by the Exsuction of so much Air in an Air-Pump." Susceptible individuals, Arbuthnot noted, experienced "lypothymies" during sudden drops in air pressure, undergoing convulsions like the mice and birds Boyle had put to death in the evacuated receiver of his pump.{7}"

SOURCE: http://www.unh.edu/history/golinski/paper2.htm

"John Arbuthnot (1667-1735) was a celebrated physician, treating Queen Anne, Chesterfield, Pulteney and Congreve amongst other famous figures of the time. He was also a noted wit, being a member of the Brothers Club and later the Scriblerus Club alongside Swift, Pope, Gay and Parnell. He wrote continously and apparently produced a large output of mainly anonymous satire, directed against 'the abuses of human learning in every branch. He had a long and close friendship with Swift who wrote of him "The doctor has more wit than we all have, and his humanity is equal to his wit"."

"It was only in later life that Arbuthnot wrote his three medical treatises, two of which we have here. His other medical work was an 'Essay concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies' (1733)."

SOURCE: http://www.maggs.com/title/MO40393.asp

Thanks to Dan and everyone on the Wall for helping the rest of us.

gf

gasfolk

Founder of Climatology?

"The rather strange phrase "philosophical furniture" suggests how purchasers of barometers in the early eighteenth century were inspired to act and to view themselves as experimental philosophers. They were encouraged by Neve and a number of other writers (including Gustavus Parker, John Patrick, and John Smith) to prepare the mercury and fill the barometer tube with care, to take observations methodically and to record them, and to regard themselves as participants in an experimental enterprise led by such natural philosophers as Boyle, Hooke, and even Isaac Newton. At the same time they acted as observers, however, the users of barometers were also expected to respond as experimental subjects, because of the way the instrument reflected human experiences of changing atmospheric conditions. As they watched the movement of the mercury in the tube, observers were also monitoring their own health and feelings, since they were told that the instrument’s behavior bore upon them. It was in this setting that the figure of the "human barometer" was born: the individual whose reactions to changes in the atmosphere were mirrored by the rising and sinking of the mercury level. As early as 1673, Boyle had reasoned from experiments with the air-pump that many liquids contained dissolved air that would be released under diminished pressure. Thus, he was "prone to suspect, that the very Alterations of the Atmosphere in point of weight may, in some cases, have some not contemptible Operations even upon mens Sickness or Health."{6} JOHN ARBUTHNOT, whose ESSAY CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF AIR ON HUMAN BODIES (1733) became one of the founding texts of Enlightenment research on climate and health, made the same connection: "I have observ’d very sensible Effects of sudden falls of the Mercury in the Barometer in tender People, and all the Symptoms they would have felt by the Exsuction of so much Air in an Air-Pump." Susceptible individuals, Arbuthnot noted, experienced "lypothymies" during sudden drops in air pressure, undergoing convulsions like the mice and birds Boyle had put to death in the evacuated receiver of his pump.{7}"

SOURCE: http://www.unh.edu/history/golinski/paper2.htm

"John Arbuthnot (1667-1735) was a celebrated physician, treating Queen Anne, Chesterfield, Pulteney and Congreve amongst other famous figures of the time. He was also a noted wit, being a member of the Brothers Club and later the Scriblerus Club alongside Swift, Pope, Gay and Parnell. He wrote continously and apparently produced a large output of mainly anonymous satire, directed against 'the abuses of human learning in every branch. He had a long and close friendship with Swift who wrote of him "The doctor has more wit than we all have, and his humanity is equal to his wit"."

"It was only in later life that Arbuthnot wrote his three medical treatises, two of which we have here. His other medical work was an 'Essay concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies' (1733)."

SOURCE: http://www.maggs.com/title/MO40393.asp

Thanks to Dan and everyone on the Wall for helping the rest of us.

gf

gasfolk

300 year old wisdom?

"There very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning; and when they cannot it's a sign our knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and when a Mathematical Reasoning can be had it's as great a folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark, when you have a Candle standing by you." -- John Arbuthnot, Of the Laws of Chance, 1692.