HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 401 



and Cartesians. It was, I say, to be expected that, upon the 

 discovery of the circulation, physicians should immediately 

 study the laws of the hydraulic system ; but matters were 

 hardly yet prepared for this purpose. The mathematicians had 

 not as yet ascertained the general principles ; and, though they 

 had, most of the data necessary for their application were still 

 wanting, and only to be obtained from the farther labours of 

 anatomists. However, the mathematical school of Galileo, as 

 in other matters took also the lead in this, and Borelli gave his 

 ingenious work " de motu Animalium." Borelli, however, was 

 no physician, but his disciple Bellini was ; it was he who ex- 

 tended the application of mathematics to both the physiology 

 and pathology of medicine. His system had such a specious 

 appearance, promised so much more certainty than the former 

 reasonings of physicians, and coincided so exactly with the reign- 

 ing taste in philosophy, that it immediately prevailed in Italy ; 

 and being brought to this side of the Alps by Dr. Pitcairn, it 

 soon became the prevailing system in Holland, England, France, 

 and even in Germany. In all these countries the mechanical 

 physic came into fashion, and was the prevailing system till 

 very lately ; but with what advantage, is still disputed, and we 

 shall consider it in another place. In the mean time we must 

 observe, that whether it was with advantage or not, many im- 

 provements have been derived from mathematics to the system 

 of physic : they have certainly contributed to put physic in the 

 good condition in which it is at present. For, agreeably to the 

 plan that was laid down by the mechanical philosophers, the 

 mechanical physicians were always declared friends to observation 

 and experiment, and they were highly useful both in detecting the 

 falsehood of particular hypotheses, and in exploding the use of 

 them in general. This established the innocence of the theories 

 of the present age, that the particular inferences drawn from 

 them are always subjected to the test of experience ; and with 

 regard to the most noted leaders in them, and particularly the 

 mechanical philosophers, it can hardly be alleged that their spe- 

 culations have ever slackened their diligence in observation and 

 experiment, or rendered them averse to those presented by 

 others. We have a particular confirmation of this in one re- 



