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First edition, an enlargement of Carson’s MD thesis, in Latin, Edinburgh
1799. An enlarged second edition, under the title An inquiry into the
causes of respiration; of the motion of the blood; [etc]’ (London 1833,
see next item) includes a reprint of the thesis. Wellcome II, p. 305;
Garrison–Morton 765.2.
Carson Wrst suggested the rôle of the elasticity of the lungs in returning
blood to the heart in his MD thesis of 1799. This was mostly theoretical,
‘But it is in his later work – An Inquiry into the Causes of the Motion of the
Blood – published in 1815, that his more mature conclusions and the results
of some experiments are presented’ (Cohen p. 2). This was a completely new
conclusion, contradicting Harvey’s view of the heart’s motion as the sole cause
of the circulation. The standard modern view that the return of venous blood
to the heart is largely due to the increased negative pressure in the pleural
cavity which with each inspiration drives blood towards the heart is due to
Carson (see Cohen p. 5 and Garrison–Morton 765.2).
Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, ‘James Carson, M.D., F.R.S. of Liverpool’, Medical
History 7 (1963) 1–12 and Wgs. 1–10.
34
CARSON, James (1772–1843)
An inquiry into the causes of respiration; of the motion of the
blood; animal heat; absorption; and muscular motion; with practical
inferences... second edition.
London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1833.
8vo: pp. xvii[i] 447.
2 engraved plates: an unsigned plate at p. 21 and one bound at the end
signed ‘Thos. Smith sculp.’ (the same plate used in the Wrst edition,
1815).
223 x 135mm. Light browning, plates foxed.
Binding: Original boards, rebacked in cloth with the original printed
paper label retained.
Provenance: Presentation copy inscribed ‘To Charles Blundell Esqr
with the compliments of the Author’.
Second, enlarged edition (Wrst as An inquiry into the causes of the motion
of the blood: with an appendix in which the process of respiration and its
connexion with the circulation of the blood are attempted to be elucidated,
Liverpool, 1815). Wellcome II, p. 305.
In this enlarged edition of his major work, Carson discusses further experiments
in support of his discovery that venous blood is returned to the heart
by the elasticity of the lungs, reported in a paper of 1820 and in his Essays,
physiological and practical (Liverpool, 1822). In this edition are included essays
on animal heat, absorption and muscular motion, as well as a reprint of his
Edinburgh MD thesis of 1799.
Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, ‘James Carson, M.D., F.R.S. of Liverpool’, Medical
History 7 (1963) 1–12 and Wgs. 1–10.