CHAP. II.] VIEWS OF IATRO-MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL. 67 



Researches In strong contrast to the iatro-chemical school, the 



of the iatro- . mathematical school of physiology was destined to 

 mathematical render great and enduring services to science. Obvi- 

 ously, however, its methods were not suited to throw 

 full light upon the essential processes of gastric digestion. 



Ignorant of the fundamental facts of chemical science, the iatro- 

 che mists had attempted, but in vain, to explain the functions of the 

 body entirely by reference to chemical operations the actions of 

 acids and alkalies and fermentations, &c. The futility, nay the 

 absurdity of their attempts had tardily forced themselves upon the 

 minds of men, and there arose a school which attempted to explain 

 all the phenomena of the body upon mechanical principles. 



The muscular gizzard of birds had suggested the idea that 

 gastric digestion did not consist in a maceration of the food under 

 the influence of heat and moisture, as the father of medicine had 

 imagined, nor of a fermentation such as v. Helmont and Sylvius 

 had written about, but of a breaking-up of the particles of food by 

 mechanical action. These muscular movements of the gizzard had 

 been attentively studied by the philosophers of the Florentine 

 Accademia del Cimento, amongst whom was the distinguished 

 naturalist and physician, Redi (born 1626, died 1698), and their 

 results had been placed on record. 



The chief of the iatro-mathematical school was unquestionably 

 Borelli (born 1608, died 1679), whose investigations 1 on the mecha- 

 nical functions of the body must secure for him the respect and 

 gratitude of physiologists of all ages. Borelli is said by Sprengel 2 

 to have advanced a purely mechanical theory of digestion. Such, 

 however, was not the case. After describing the mechanical pro- 

 cesses by which some animals comminute and, as he thought, di- 

 gested their food, he refers to others in which another process is 

 superadded : 



' Haec animalia fermento quoque validissimo carnes et ossa consumunt 

 nee secus, ac aquae corrosivae metalla corrodunt, et dissolvunt. Talis porro 

 succus corrosivus instillatur a glandulis corrosivis, quibus membranosa 

 ventriculi substantia infarcta est, ut evidentissime observavi in ventriculo 

 Delphini, cujus glandulae admodum crassae et prominentes sunt 3 .' 



Borelli thus more clearly enunciated the existence of a gastric 

 juice and its relation to the glands of .the stomach than any of his 

 predecessors. 



1 Borelli, 'De Motu Animalium.' Opus Posthumum. Komae, 1681. 



2 'Borelli expliquait bien plus m6caniquement les autres fonctions du corps. 

 Nous avons d6ja vu quelles 6taient ses idees relativement a la forc.e du coeur et au 

 m6canisme de la respiration. Sa theorie de la digestion n'etait pas moins conforme 

 aux principes des iatro-mathe'maticiens. II comparait 1'estomac de l'homme a celui de 

 differens oiseaux, et il en valuait la force a un poids de mille trois cent cinquante 

 livres.' Sprengel, Histoire de la Medecine. French edition, 1815. Vol. v. p. 142. 



3 Borelli, Op. cit. Vol. n. Prop, clxxxix. pp. 394 and 395. 



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