CHAPTER IV 



BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 



I. Harvey's Successors 



IN THE FOREGOING have bccn described the two entirely contrasted natural 

 systems which appeared independently in opposition to Aristoteleanism : 

 the mechanical conception of nature, and the mystical view of life. As has 

 been shown in the first part of this work, the foundations of the mechanical 

 view of natural phenomena were laid by Harvey, who proved that the circu- 

 lation of the blood, which had up to that time been regarded as an expression 

 for certain vital spirits, goes on as a purely mechanical process. Although 

 himself a convinced disciple of Aristotle, Harvey thereby laid the foundations 

 of that modern scientific theory of the phenomena of life which follows the 

 same methods in dealing with them as those applied to the investigation of 

 phenomena in inorganic nature. This discovery of Harvey's created an im- 

 mense sensation; during the immediately succeeding decades after its publica- 

 tion (in 1 6x8) it was the one great question of the day and occasioned a vast 

 quantity of literature both for and against it. Its overwhelming truth, how- 

 ever, soon silenced all opposition; the conservative adherents to the old 

 system gradually died off and the young research-workers were easily won 

 over to the new view and devoted themselves to gathering fresh proofs of its 

 validity. How successful it was is best evidenced by the extraordinary stimu- 

 lus given to the study of anatomy during the middle and latter half of the 

 seventeenth century. This period, perhaps more than any other, can be re- 

 garded as one of brilliant anatomical achievement, to which the preceding 

 era, beginning with Vesalius's revolutionary inventions in the field of tech- 

 nique and methods of observation, impresses one mostly as being a period 

 of introduction. A comparison between these two epochs also produces a 

 remarkable contrast of a national character; while during the Renaissance 

 Italy was the sole centre of anatomical research, its range had now spread 

 northwards: now for the first time England, Holland, and Scandinavia begin 

 to make definite contributions to the development of biology. And simul- 

 taneously with this shifting of the centre of biological research we find 

 another change appearing in its conditions, first in Italy and later the 



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