CHAPTER III. 



OUR LIFE. 



Development of physiology in antiquity and the Middle Ages. 

 Galen. Experiment and vivisection. Discovery of the circulation 

 of the blood by Harvey. Vitalism: Haller. Teleological and 

 vitalistic conception of life. Mechanical and monistic view of 

 the physiological processes. Comparative physiology in the nine- 

 teenth century : Johannes Muller. Cellular physiology : Max 

 Verworm. Cellular pathology : Virchow. Mammal-physiology. 

 Similarity of all vital energy in man and the ape. 



It is only in the nineteenth century that our know- 

 ledge of human life has attained the dignity of a 

 genuine, independent science ; during the course of 

 the century it has developed into one of the highest, 

 most interesting, and most important branches of 

 knowledge. This " science of the vital functions," 

 physiology, had, it is true, been regarded at a much 

 earlier date as a desirable, if not necessary, condition 

 of success in medical treatment, and had been con- 

 stantly associated with anatomy, the science of the 

 structure of the body. But it was only much later, 

 and much more slowly, than the latter that it could be 

 thoroughly studied, as it had to contend with much 

 more serious difficulties. 



The idea of life, as the opposite of death, naturally 

 became the subject of speculation at a very early age. 

 In the living man, just as in other living animals, 



39 



