Tri-State medical journal and practitioner . of the circulation of theblood, made vivisections to prove its truth and did much to popularize it,since it fell in with his mechanical theory of life. He said that science maybe compared to a tree; metaphysics being the root, physics the trunk, and 318 Historical Sketch. the chief branches mechanics, medicine and morals. The Cartesian philos-ophy dominated the medical theories of the seventeenth and part of theeighteenth centuries. The physicians of the seventeenth century attemptedto solve the problems of life upon purely materialistic principles—
Tri-State medical journal and practitioner . of the circulation of theblood, made vivisections to prove its truth and did much to popularize it,since it fell in with his mechanical theory of life. He said that science maybe compared to a tree; metaphysics being the root, physics the trunk, and 318 Historical Sketch. the chief branches mechanics, medicine and morals. The Cartesian philos-ophy dominated the medical theories of the seventeenth and part of theeighteenth centuries. The physicians of the seventeenth century attemptedto solve the problems of life upon purely materialistic principles—the oneby the aid of chemistry, the other by the assistance of mechanics. Hencearose the two chief schools of medicine known respectively as the Iatro-chemical and Iatro-mechanical. The typical representative of the formerwas Sylvius de la Boe, while to the latter we must assign Sanctorius,Borelli, Bellini, Baglivi, Danzellini, Sauvages, Senac, Boerhaave, andPitcairne. Descartes was not only a great philosopher and one of the greatest and. Rene by Franz Hals. most original of mathematicians, but he is entitled to the highest rank as aphysiologist; for he did for the physiology of motion and sensation whatHarvey had done for the circulation of the blood. Descartes advanced themechanical theory of these processes. The foundation of the modernphysiology of the nervous system was expressed by Descartes two hundredand fifty years ago. He held that the brain is the organ of sensation,thought and emotion; that the movements of animals are due to change ofform of muscles, which shorten and become thicker, and that this changeis due to a motion of the substance contained in the nerves going to themuscle; that the sensations of animals are due to a motion of the substanceof the nerves which connect the sensory organs with the brain; that themotion of the matter of a sensory nerve may be transmitted through the brain Reminiscences—Borck. 319 to motor nerves, thereby
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