26o "SPECIFIC TREATMENT" OF DISEASE 



began with the renaissance and an epoch was 

 marked by the publication in 1543 of Vesalius's 

 Fabrica Humani Corporis. This author, a Belgian^ 

 taught surgery and anatomy in Padua. Finding 

 the classical authors constantly in error he cast 

 them out and taught his pupils only what he could 

 himself see and demonstrate to others. Neverthe- 

 less, it was not until 1628 that William Harvey 

 demonstrated the circulation of the blood, while 

 the study of the functions of other organs was only 

 attacked at a later date. As time progressed it 

 became clearer that the only way of studying the 

 processes which take place in the body was by the 

 experimental method, and, failing man as a sub- 

 ject, to resort to the study of these processes in 

 living animals. 



Physiology concerns itself with the functions 

 of all the organs of the body and the processes that 

 take place in them in health. Though much ana- 

 tomy can be learnt from dead bodies this does not 

 hold for physiology. To study what takes place 

 in the living body it is necessary to subject the 

 living to experiment. As man is similar to a 

 number of animals in certain essential points of 

 structure and function, it was natural that recourse 

 was had to animals for the study of those functions 

 which could not be investigated in man. When 

 we survey the knowledge acquired in the domain 

 of physiology we are compelled to realize that 

 practically all the progress that has been made in 



