580 Medicine. [Giiap. IV 



sufficiently known. So attached was he to the geo- 

 metrical mode of demonstration, that he appeared 

 to consider it as the only species of evidence, ex- 

 cepting the senses, that deserved any reliance. 



These opinions were warmly adopted and sup- 

 ported by the illustrious Boerhaave, who first ap- 

 peared as a public teacher about the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century. He exhibited the first suc-t 

 cessful example of combining physiology with ana- 

 tomy, reduced the former from a rude and chaotic 

 into a regular state, and conferred upon it that 

 systematic and elegant form which so greatly re- 

 commended it to the notice and admiration of the 

 world. But a more particular account of the opi- 

 nions of this distinguished physician will be given 

 under a succeeding head. 



Baron Haller, the disciple of Boerhaave, pur- 

 sued the steps of his master, and far surpassed him 

 in his physiological career. He made a universal 

 collection of preceding discoveries in anatomy and 

 physiology, and digested them into order and me- 

 thod. He surveyed every part of the human body, 

 explained the various functions according to the 

 best lights which the state of science at that time 

 afforded, corrected the errours of preceding vyriters, 

 and, by a series of indefatigable labours, was ena- 

 Ijled to make very important additions to the ex- 

 isting stock of knowledge. In his great work, en- 

 titled Elcmenta Physiologice Corporis Hinnani, he 

 examined the opinions whicli had been recom- 

 mended, or at least advanced, by all tlie most ce- 

 lebrated authors. Nothing of importance, that had 

 been previously published, escaped his notice. The 

 most rapid sketch of the errours in physiology which 



