Note 28 — Chapter VII · GENERAL DIFFERENCES OF THE TWO LIVES WITH RESPECT TO VITAL POWER.
F. Gold translation
Note by the Translator of Magendie’s Additions.—In the preceding note M. Magendie has not done justice to Mr. Hunter. Without entering at all into the examination of the question, whether absorption is performed by the lymphatics or the veins, it is due to Mr. Hunter to contradict the assertion, that “he overthrew the ancient theory by five experiments only.” He was not a man who adopted his opinions loosely or on slight grounds, and in the present case he performed between twenty and thirty judicious and satisfactory experiments, in the presence of several physicians and surgeons. It is true that these were performed on five different animals only, but if the result were uniform, this number was as good as five thousand or any other one that could be named.
G. H.
(See Hunter’s Commentaries and Cruikshank on the Absorbents.)