428 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



to the action of the muscles, his views were anatomi- 

 cally and mechanically correct; in some instances, 

 he showed what this action was, by severing the 

 muscle 8 . He himself added considerably to the 

 existing knowledge of this subject; and his dis- 

 coveries and descriptions, even of very minute parts 

 of the muscular system, are spoken of with praise 

 by modern anatomists 9 . 



We may consider, therefore, that the doctrine of 

 the muscular system, as a collection of cords and 

 sheets, by the contraction of which the parts of the 

 body are moved and supported, was firmly esta- 

 blished, and completely followed into detail, by 

 Galen and his predecessors. But there is another 

 class of organs connected with voluntary motion, 

 the nerves, and we must for a moment trace the 

 opinions which prevailed respecting these. Aris- 

 totle, as we have said, noticed some of the nerves of 

 sensation. But Herophilus, who lived in Egypt in 

 the time of the first Ptolemy, distinguished nerves 

 as the organs of the will 10 , and Rufus, who lived in 

 the time of Trajan 11 , divides the nerves into sensi- 

 tive and motive, and derives .them all from the 

 brain. But this did not imply that men had yet 

 distinguished the nerves from the muscles. Even 

 Galen maintained that every muscle consists of a 

 bundle of nerves and sinews '*. But the important 

 points, the necessity of the nerve, and the origina- 



8 Sprengel, ii. 157. 9 Ib. ii. 150. '" Ib. i. 



" Ib. ii. 67. " Ib. ii. 152. Galen, De Molu Muse. j>. :, 



