62 Borelli and the Influence [lect. 



those parts of the basis of his views for which they could find 

 no authority given by anatomical observation or by physiological 

 experiment. Hence his views on the nature of man found no 

 place in the physiology of the day, they passed over wholly into 

 philosophy so called. But his main idea, that the problems of 

 man ought to be treated in the same way as the problems of 

 the rest of nature, made itself felt and produced effects in after 

 times. 



I cannot do better than quote the words of a remarkable 

 contemporary of his, one of whom I shall soon have to speak, 

 Nicolaus Stensen, who in a discourse delivered in Paris on the 

 anatomy of the brain thus sums up Descartes' position as a 

 physiologist. 



" Descartes," says he, " was too clever in exposing the errors 

 " of current treatises on man to be willing to undertake the task 

 " of expounding the true structure of man. Therefore in his 

 " essay on Man he does not attempt such a delineation, but is 

 " content to describe a machine capable of performing all the 

 " functions of which man is capable. And in this sense we may 

 "affirm without exaggeration that Descartes bears the palm 

 "over all other philosophers in this matter. For he was the 

 " first who dared to explain all the functions of man, and 

 " especially of the brain, in a mechanical manner. Other 

 " authors describe man ; Descartes puts before us merely a 

 " machine, but by means of this he very clearly exposed the 

 " ignorance of others who have treated of man, and opened up 

 " for us a way by which to investigate the use of other parts of 

 " the body, though it may be difficult to do so with the same 

 " clearness and fidelity with which he proceeds in demonstrating 

 " the parts of his machine of man, a task which no man before 

 " him attempted." 



From this excursion into wider fields we now return to the 

 narrower one of the effects of the teaching of Galileo on the 

 more special problems of physiology, and this brings us at once 

 to the labours of Borelli. 



Giovanni Alphonso Borelli was born at Naples on Jan. 28, 

 1608, in the Nuovo Castello, where his father, a man of humble 

 origin, though his mother was of a good family, was serving as 



