

vi] Sylvius and his Pupils. 149 



as distinguished from chemical, knowledge were unimportant. 

 He was the discoverer of no new striking piece of physiological 

 truth, unless perhaps it be the distinction between conglome- 

 rate and conglobate glands, to which we have already referred, 

 and we owe to him it is true and not to his older namesake, 

 the aqueduct of Sylvius; but the new things which he made 

 known were in the main chemical. Yet he occupies a not 

 inconspicuous place in the history of physiology on account 

 of his power and enthusiasm as a teacher. He became the 

 founder of a school. 



We may infer something about the influence of Sylvius as 

 a teacher and about the scope of his teaching from what his 

 brilliant pupil Stensen says of him. Towards the end of his 

 larger treatise on muscle, Stensen, treating of what yet re- 

 mained to be learnt about muscle writes as follows : — 



" No one as yet, so far as I know, has so joined Chemistry 

 " to Anatomy as to have clearly and distinctly explained, not 

 "by deductions from the doctrines of the schools but by 

 " following up the indications of Nature, in what respects 

 " muscle tendon and bone agree and in what they differ. 



" My most eminent teacher Sylvius has laboured in this 

 "way with happy results, in respect to the humours of our 

 "body; and, if I remember rightly, I have often listened to 

 " him while he led by the same spirit of inquiry discoursed 

 " also concerning the nature of tendons and of bones. But that 

 "eminent man although he has done much in this branch of 

 " knowledge is, lest he might seem to, sacrifice the public weal 

 "to his own glory, in the habit of daily assuring his pupils 

 " that he has not been able to accomplish everything. Hence 

 " he expounds, in the shape of views and speculations, matters 

 " concerning which he has not yet arrived at a clear and definite 

 "result, and thus he stimulates others to inquiry, supplying 

 " them at the same time with problems to begin with." 



We learn from this that Sylvius had his mind open towards 

 all the chemical problems presented by the human body, but 

 that he busied himself chiefly with, and was most successful in, 

 the study of the fluids of the body, the blood, the lymph and 

 the several juices or secretions. 



