‎"HALES, (STEPHEN). - FOUNDING A NEW SCIENCE, PLANT PHYSIOLOGY.‎
‎La Statiqie des Vegetaux, et L'Analyse de L'Air. Experiences nouvelles Lûes à la Societé Royale de Londres. Ouvrage traduit de l'Anglois, par M. De Buffon.‎

‎A Paris, Debure, 1735. 4to. Contemp. full calf, 5 raised bands, richly gilt spine. Titlelabel gone. XVIII,(8),408,(2) pp. and 20 engraved plates (on 10 folded sheets). A wide-margined copy, clean and fine, printed on good paper.‎

Reference : 46839

‎First French edition - ""Vegetable Staticks"", 1727 - of this milestone work in plant physiology, being the first complete account of the physiology of plants, including the reaction with air and the movement of the sap. Hale's also here introduced a new method of gas collection and the work greatly influenced the subsequent develpment in chemistry and contributed to the discovery of many of the most impirtent medical gases. This importent French translation by Buffon which has the famous ""Préface du traductcur,"" in which Buffon praises the experimental method, and includes Hales’s appendix of 1733, was very influential.""Hale's many experiments with gases led him to demonstrate the dependence of plants on air, that plants inspire and give off ""air"". He measured the volume of waterabsorbed and evaporated in plants and studied the movements of the sap in plants. By weighing a grown potted plant and also the loss in soil in which it grew, hales proved that something material was absorbed by the plant from the air. With the use of a manometeer (pressure gauge) he traced the blood pressure and velocity in the veins and arteries of animals.""(Dibner in ""herald of Science"", no. 26).Parkinson ""Breakthroughs"", 1727 B - Milestones of Science:91 (Engl. ed.) - Dibner: No 26 (Engl. ed.). - Horblitt 45 a (Engl. ed.).- PMM: 189 a (Engl. ed.).‎