Page:Babell, a satirical poem (1830).djvu/17

he kept the house, he was in the greatest tranquility and composedness of mind imaginable; and after this manner, without pain or trouble, and with just apprehensions of God and religion, as he constantly lived, left the world;—and we may expect just accounts of him, quem odio aut gratia meis exemit. And I am confident his character will be as bright and shining as any of the greatest worthies our nation can boast of, either in the present or past ages.

"He was the most learned Physician that this kingdom ever bred. He was professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and Leyden, and he graced and adorned these chairs, with uncommon learning and knowledge. His excellent dissertations are lasting monuments of his noble genius, and of what advantage and light, he has thrown into the darkest parts of Medicine. In them, he proved the continuities of the veins and arteries, without which, the circulation of the blood was imperfect. He has demonstrated the necessity of obstructions happening in the arteries, rather than in the nerves, and in the nerves, rather than in the veins, and that from their make and figure. He both explained respiration and the structure of the lungs, and has proved that the air does not penetrate through the coats of the vessels to mix with the blood in them, contrary to the opinion of the great Borelli. He has told us how digestion is performed, viz. by the strong muscles of the stomach, and the muscles of the diaphragm and abdomen, and all this in a due mathematical way. He has destroyed ferments in the stomach, and other parts of the body, for correcting of which, so many unnecessary drugs were given by physicians. He has established the circular figure of pores and defeated the con-