THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 



Regius Professor of Physic at the L'ni\ersity of Duljlin, 

 even went so far as to claim that "Sir Isaac Newton 

 discovered the Causes of Muscular Motion and Secre- 

 tion" (39). 



At the opening of the eigthteenth century the sci- 

 ence of the nervous system had reached diflferent levels 

 in the various countries of Europe. In Germany in 

 the first half of the century the Thirty Years War 

 had brought science almost to a standstill, and in the 

 fields of chemistry and physiology this stagnation de- 

 veloped into a retrogression owing to the emergence 

 of an extremely influential figure, Georg Ernst Stahl. 

 In opposition to both the chemical and mathematical 

 schools, Stahl set back the clock by the reintroduction 

 of an immaterial anima which he held to be the sole 

 activating principle of the body parts (40). The 

 latter were regarded as having no dynamic properties 

 of their own, being essentially passive structures. 

 Since the search for an immaterial agent lies outside 

 the scope of science, Stahl's doctrines, promulgated 

 with arrogance and dogmatism, virtually extinguished 

 experimental inquiry among his followers. Yet even 

 writers sympathetic to his viewpoint granted that in 

 attempting to follow his arguments one became "in- 

 volved in a labyrinth of metaphysical subtlety" (41). 

 The metaphysical approach of Stahl later came 

 under criticism from Vicq d'Azyr (42) who suggested 

 that the invention of an imaginary soul to resolve those 

 phenomena that could not yet be explained by the 

 laws of physics and chemistry was merely a cloak for 

 ignorance, van Helmont did not escape the same 

 criticism. 



In opposition to humoral or vitalistic concepts of 

 nervous and muscular activity was a prominent 

 champion of a 'solidist' theory, Giorgio Baglivi. This 

 young man, whom Pope Innocent XII had appointed to 

 be profes.sor of the theory of medicine and anatomy 

 at Rome, put emphasis on the fibers of the muscles 

 and the nerves, and so foreshadowed the importance 

 that was to be given in the eighteenth century to the 

 intrinsic structural properties of these tissues. He de- 



39. Robinson, Br\an (1680- 1754). A treatise of the Animal 

 Oeconomy (3rd ed.). London: Innys, 1738. 



40. Stahl, Georg Ernst (1660-1734). Theoria Medica Vera 

 Physiologiam et Pat/iologium, tanquam Doctrinae Medicae 

 Partes veres Conternplativas e Naturae et Artis veris Junda- 

 mentis. Halle, 1708. 



41. BosTOCK, John (1773-1846). Sketch of the History of Medi- 

 cine from Its origin to the commencement of the nineteenth century. 

 London: Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1835. 



42. Vicq d'.'Kzvr, F. (1748-1794). Oeuvres de Vicq d'Azyr. 

 Paris, 1805, vol. 4. 



FIG. 4. (iiorgio Bagli\i rising like a phoenix from the flames. 



veloped a theory (43) of an oscillatory movement of 

 nerve fibers in order to account for both efferent and 

 afferent activity and envisaged the dura mater as the 

 source of these movements and the recipient of the 

 returning oscillation. 



The leading medical center in Europe at this 

 time was the University of Leiden. The empirical 

 approach was urged by the physicist S'Gravesande 

 (44) who advised that "It is Nature herself that 

 should be examined as closely as possible . . . progress 

 may be slow, but what we find will be certain." 

 Petrus van Mmschenbroek (45), who had come to 

 the Chair of Physics at Leiden from Utrecht in 1 740, 

 had in a discourse on scientific method emphasized 

 that physics should stand apart from metaphysics, 

 that experimental analysis should antecede synthesis, 

 that in the collection of evidence the exception should 

 not be ignored, and that argument by analogy was 

 fraught with danger. Yet it was essentially by analogy 

 that the early eighteenth century viewed the func- 



43. Baglivi, Giorgio (1668-1707). De fibra motrice et 

 morbosa. In: Opera Omnia. Leyden: Antonii Servant, 1733. 



44. S'Gravesande, Wilhelm Jacob (1688-1742). Physices 

 Elementa Mathematica Experimenlis conjirmata sire Intro- 

 ductio ad Philosopham .\ewtoniatinm. 2nd ed., 1725; 3rd 

 ed., 1742,2 vols. Leiden. 



45. VAN MusscHENBROEK, Petrus (1692-1761). Discours a 

 i' Organisation de V Experience. 1730. (His swansong as 

 Rector at the University of Utrecht.) 



