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He removed the pancreas and the spleen as well, but not the 

 whole of it, from a dog, which he kept alive for a time. According 

 to him, in this dog the digestive functions were performed normally. 

 If this be so, then it is plain that the pancreas could not have the 

 high importance attributed to it by Sylvius and De Graaf. In one 

 dog he observed great thirst and frequent micturition, and in 

 another a ravenous appetite. All these statements are intensely 

 interesting in the light of what we now know regarding the sinister 

 effects of complete removal of the pancreas. 



In connection with the digestive process itself, some held that it 

 was due chiefly to the stomach, others to the bile, and some that it 

 was chiefly due to trituration, others to concoction and chemical 

 changes. Borelli long ago had experimented on birds provided with 

 gizzards, e.g., turkeys, in which he showed that glass spheres, hollow 

 lead tubes, filberts, and nuts were crushed by the powerful action of 

 the gizzard. He even calculated the force of the turkey's stomach at 

 1,350 lbs. In those animals not so provided, flesh and bone intro- 

 duced into the stomach are consumed by a very potent ferment. The 

 school of Sylvius — the iatro-chemists — contended that the changes 

 were mainly chemical. Here the story is interrupted again for a 

 long time, for GEORG ERNESTUS STAHL (1660-1734) added 

 nothing to our knowledge of this subject. With his doctrine of 

 " Phlogiston," and his " Animism " and " vital principle," or, rather, 

 " sensitive soul," he retarded, rather than advantaged, progress. 

 Two other observers, taking up the method of Borelli, added 

 considerably to our knowledge of the process of digestion, more 

 especially in birds. 



HERMANN BOERHAAVE. 



1668-1738. 



TRACING the story from the end of the seventeenth to the 

 eighteenth century, next to Stahl, the dominant and out- 

 standing personality is Boerhaave, who, like Vesalius, was 

 born as one year was shortly to pass into a new one, on December 

 31st, 1668, at Voorhout, near Leyden. His father was a clergyman, 

 and Boerhaave's training at Leyden was such as to prepare him for 

 the Church. After the death of his father, he taught mathematics in 

 order to enable him to complete his studies in divinity. He became 

 Doctor of Philosophy in 1690. Vanderberg, the burgomaster, advised 

 him to study medicine. Boerhaave had a long-standing ulcer in the 

 leg, which he cured by the application of a rather homely remedy. 

 This result, it is said, along with an interlude of a different kind, 

 



