inquiry and experiment, most probably derived from Vesalius' work. Gilbert proposed "trustworthy
experiments" in place of adherence to dogma as the only way to determine the truth.
The century ushered in by Gilbert's De magnete was to be one of the most exciting in the
history of science. In the early years Galileo invented the compound telescope and destroyed the earth-
centered cosmology. The instrument was shortly reversed, producing the compound microscope which
began to reveal a new cosmology-the intricacies within living things. In 1602 Francis Bacon proposed
what was to be later considered the foundation of all science-the scientific method of experimentation,
observation and verification. Despite this reputation, Bacon, in truth, not only failed to acknowledge his
debt to Gilbert but actually may have presented some of Gilbert's observations as his own while at the
same time caustically condemning Gilbert's work!
However, the genie was out of the bottle and science was off on the quest for truth through
experimentation. In 1628 William Harvey published the first real series of (physiological) experiments,
describing for the first time the circulation of blood as a closed circuit, with the heart as the pumping
agent. Vitalism, however, was still the only acceptable concept and Harvey naturally located the "vital
spirit" in the blood. At mid-century, Rene Descartes, the great French mathematician, attempted to
unify biological concepts of structure, function and mind within a framework of mathematical physics.
In Descartes' view all life was mechanical with all functions being directed by the brain and the nerves.
To him we owe the beginning of the mechanistic concept of living machines-complex, but fully
understandable in terms of physics and chemistry. Even Descartes did not break completely with
tradition in that he believed that an "animating force" was still necessary to give the machine life.
However, he modernized Galen's original humors in the light of the rapidly accumulating new
knowledge postulating only one animating spirit, no longer liquid, but more "like a wind or a subtle
flame" which he naturally located within the nervous system.
At about the same time Malphighi, an Italian physician and naturalist, began using the new
compound microscope to study living organisms. While he did not quite discover the cellular basis of
life (that remained for Robert Hooke twenty years later), his studies revealed an unsuspected wealth of
detail and incredible complexity in living things. By 1660 von Guericke had pursued Gilbert's studies
much further and invented the first electrical generating machine, a spinning globe of solid sulfur,
which generated large static electrical charges. The century closed with the great Isaac Newton who,
after proposing an "all pervading aether" filling the universe and all material bodies therein, suggested
that it may be Descartes' vital principle, flowing through the nerves and producing the complex
functions called life.
Accompanying the intellectual ferment and excitement of the seventeenth century was a
remarkable growth in scientific communication without which progress would have been much slower.
The first academy of science-the Italian Academy of the Lynx-was founded in Rome in 1603 and
included among its members Galileo and the great entomologist, Faber. Similar societies were started
in other countries, until in 1662. the Royal Society of London was incorporated. Besides providing a
forum for discussion, the societies began the publication of scientific journals, the first issue of the
Journal des Savants appearing in I665 followed in three months by the first issue of the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society. Several avenues were thus provided for the dissemination of new
ideas and the reports of the results of "trustworthy experiments."
As the next century dawned, knowledge of electricity had advanced beyond Gilbert but was still
limited to von Guericke's static charges. Biology, however, was by then firmly grounded in anatomy,
both gross and microscopic, based upon actual dissection and observation. Although there had been
some movement away from Galen's "humors," the postulated "vital forces" were still the necessary
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