Medicina statica: being the Aphorisms of Sanctorius, translated into English with large explanations / [Santorio Santorio].

  • Santorio, Santorio, 1561-1636
Date:
1720
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medicina statica: being the Aphorisms of Sanctorius, translated into English with large explanations / [Santorio Santorio]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    z ties, Sympathies and Antipathies, and the like, can¬ not bear without Indignation and Scorn to fee thole great Myfteries of Phyfick, and that excellent Frame which is its Subject, that beautiful Epitome of the Creation, marked out like a Spot of Earth or a Piece of Timber, with Rule and Compafles: For this Rea- fon, I fay, it is, that by this Introduction is intended an Enquiry into the means by which we arrive at any Certainty in Phyfick, and to fhew that it is not to be done without fuch Helps *, for I cannot but be perfwaded, that the finall Progrefs which has been made in Phyfical Knowledge for a long fpace of Time, is chiefly owing to the want of a due At¬ tentions thofe Powers and Capacities of the Mind, by which only it is enabled to purfue fuch Enqui¬ ries $ oiherwife certainly fo many, who pretend alfo to be no mean Proficients therein, would not take fo much Diftafte at all Pretences of this kind, as it is common to meet with $ and affirm ofrimes that the Beft talk but learnedly of what they know nothing, and that the whole is meer guefs-work. It is for the fake of fuch, that I am willing to be at the Pains to convince them that the Fault is not in the Science, by its not affording fufficient Evidences to build any Certainty upon, but in themfelves, in their Ignorance in the Means by which that Certainty is to be obtained. And of this I have hopes in a great meafure of fucceeding, by demonftrating that thofe Rules and Laws of' Motion, which we are furnrfhed with from Mecbanich, are the only Guides we can have in difcovering the Natures and Properties of all ma¬ terial Subftances whatfoever, and that by thefe Af fiftances only, they are knowable with any Cer¬ tainty. And this I much the rather chufe to do in this Place, becaufe our Author, although he com- $ofed thofe Apborifms at a time when this way