English Physiologist 1677-1761

Stephen Hales was a preeminent scientist of the late eighteenth century and the founder of plant physiology. Born in Kent, England, in 1677, Hales grew up in an upper-class Kent family and was educated at Cambridge University. Though he received no formal training in botany during college, Hales obtained a solid background in science, including physics and mechanics. Upon graduation from Cambridge, Hales moved to Teddington, a town on the Thames River in England, where he lived the rest of his life.

Hales has been called the first fully deductive and quantitative plant scientist. He made many significant discoveries concerning both animal and plant circulation. Crucially, Hales measured plant growth and devised innovative methods for the analysis and interpretation of these measurements.

Hales's most original contribution was his transfer of application of the so-called statical method he and others had used on animals to...