Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 784

STEPHEN HALES (1677-1761) Statical essays. Vol. I: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby; T. Woodward; and J. Peele, 1738; Vol. II: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby; and T. Woodward 1733 Vol. I: 3rd ed. Vol. II: 1st ed. Vol. I: [6] x [4] 376 pp.; Vol. II: xxii [26] 361 [22] pp., plates. 19.7 cm.

Stephen Hales was an English clergyman with a curiously scientific turn of mind. His work not only threw original light on the hydrostatics of sap movement in plants, but, more importantly, it gave the first quantitative estimates of blood pressure. A glass tube inserted directly into the femoral artery of a horse permitted him to measure directly the height of the column of blood (arterial pressure). He was actually the inventor of the sphygmomanometer, and he studied as well the peripheral resistance, cardiac capacities, and blood velocity. This epochal work, so important to therapeutics ever since, was the most important step in the knowledge of the circulation between Malpighi and Poiseuille (1799-1869).

Cited references: Cushing H36 (Vol. II only); Garrison-Morton 765; Osler 1081; Wellcome III, p. 194

Gift of John Martin, M.D.