12 HANDBOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY -^ NEUROPHYSIOLOGY I 



FIG. 7. Two men whose ideas of irritability anteceded tiiose of Haller. Glisson's concept (1677) 

 included a psychic stage between stimulus and contraction thereby differing from Haller's which 

 postulated a purely peripheral reaction. Johannes de Gorters proposal of irritability based on 

 mechanical movement was published in 1734. The portrait of Glisson is an engraving from the 

 original painting in the Royal College of Physicians. That of de Gorter is photographed from an 

 engraving, the generous gift of the Director of the National Museum of Science in I^eiden. The 

 original painting was by J. M. Quinkhard, the artist of the portrait of van Musschenbroek repro- 

 duced in figure 1 1 . 



and was the author of the most famous of the eight- 

 eenth century textbooks of physiology, the Elementa 

 Physiologiae (53). Although these volumes came into 

 print after Haller's retirement to Berne, he had while 

 teaching at Gottingen brought out his Primae Lineae 

 Physiologiae (54) for, as he proceeded with his ana- 

 tomical and experimental studies, his master's texts 

 became less and less useful to him. In the preface to 

 his own work he remarks that, since the time of Boer- 

 haave, anatomy had developed so greatly as to be- 

 come almost a new science. Haller had himself 

 brought out an anatomy book (55) with fine engrav- 

 ings, and anatomy was one of the four subjects on 

 which he compiled bibliographies (56-59) that are a 



great source of information for the medical historian. 

 They contain tens of thousands of references. 



For neurophysiologists Haller's most interesting 

 work is his development of the concept of irritability. 

 An earlier student of Boerhaave's at Leiden was 

 Johannes de Gorter who later became physician to 

 the Empress Elizabeth of Russia. He had in 1737 

 published a volume (60) in which he brought out of 

 obscurity the idea of the intrinsic irritability of tissues 

 that had been postulated by Francis Glisson in the 

 previous century. It is not clear whether de Gorter 

 owed any of his ideas to Glisson. He mentions hiin 

 only once (in De AIolii vitale, paragraph 58, p. 40) and 

 this only in reference to the capsula hepatis. In any 



53. VON Haller, Albrecht (i 708-1 777). Elementa Physi- 

 ologiae corporis humani. Lausanne: Marci-Michael Bous- 

 quet et Soc, 1 757-1 765. 8 \ol. 



54. VON H.'iLLER, A. Primae lineae physiologiae in usiim praelec- 

 tionium academicarium. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck, 1747. 



55. VON Haller, A. hones analomicae. Gottingen: Vanden- 

 hoeck, 1 743-1 756. 



56. VON Haller, A. Bibliotheca Bolanica. Zurich: Orell, 1771- 

 1772. 



57. VON Haller, A. Bibliotheca Chirurgica. Basle: Schweig- 

 hauser, 1774; Berne: E. Haller, 1775. 



58. VON Haller, A. Bibliotheca Anatomica. Zurich: Orell, 



I774-I777- 



59. VON Haller, A. Bibliotheca medicinae practicae. Basle: 

 Schweighauscr, 1776; Berne: E. Haller, 1778. 



60. DE Gorter, Johannes (1689-1762). Exercitaliones medicae 

 quatuor. I: De motu vitale, 1734; il: Somno et vigilia; 

 HI: De Jame; IV: De Siti. Amsterdam, 1737. 



