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August Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

MARCELLO MALPIGHI (1628-1694). De pulmonibus observationes anatomicae. In Thomas Bartholin’s De pulmonum substantia & motu diatribe, Copenhagen, 1663 Anatomist, embryologist, physiologist, and microscopist, Malpighi was instrumental in the development of embryology and histology and also a great microscopic anatomist. Malpighi made many scientific contributions, but many  consider his discovery of the pulmonary circulation the most important. De pulmonibusContinue reading “August Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library”

Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room, July 2014: Nathaniel Highmore

Nathaniel Highmore (1613-1685) Corporis Humani Disquisitio Anatomica The Hague: Ex oficina Samuelis Brown, 1651. [Image via Fisher Library Digital Collections, University of Toronto]. Nathaniel Highmore of Dorset, England was a British surgeon known for his 1651 treatise on anatomy, the first of its kind to give an accurate account of the circulatory system. Highmore studiedContinue reading “Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room, July 2014: Nathaniel Highmore”

Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room, May 2014: Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol

Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840) Des maladies mentales considérées sous les rapports médical, hygiénique et médicolégal. 2 vols. Brussels : J.B. Tircher, 1838. Esquirol’s drawing of an inmate of Bethlem Hospital. As Pinel’s most outstanding pupil, Esquirol so closely followed his teacher’s works that the contributions of the two men are sometimes confused. Like Pinel, EsquirolContinue reading “Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room, May 2014: Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol”

The Father of Biomechanics: Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, 1680-1681

Borelli. [Image via wikipedia.org] Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1679) was an Italian Renaissance physicist who sought to make mechanical laws applicable to all physiological phenomena. Borelli, who studied at Padua under Galileo, regarded the human body essentially as a machine whose functions could be explained by the laws of physics. He mentored Marcello Malpighi– who wentContinue reading “The Father of Biomechanics: Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, 1680-1681”

Ibn Butlan’s Tacuini Sanitatis (1531)

Image via the guardian.com, credit Royal Society This images are from a 14th century translation of Arabic doctor Ibn Butlan, who died circa 1068. Butlan’s title roughly translates to “health report.” The report addresses the impact of nature, emotional states, daily life, and meteorological conditions on health. Butlan wrote that his book concerned “the sixContinue reading “Ibn Butlan’s Tacuini Sanitatis (1531)”