Borelli (1608-1679), of Naples, is usually regarded, however, as the founder of the iatromechanical school. Of a quarrelsome disposition, he could not stay long in any one place, though he ultimately settled in Rome, where he joined the circle of _savants_ who gathered round Christina, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, who had become a convert to Catholicism. Finally Borelli entered a monastery. His services related mainly to physiology, where, like Descartes, he followed purely mathematical principles; he explained the action of the muscles by the laws of the lever, calculated the mechanical work done by the heart, and correctly ascribed inspiration to muscular action. He was the opponent of iatrochemistry, and claimed there was no such thing as corruption of the blood. His pupils and followers--like Bellini (1643-1704). of Florence, who became professor in Pisa at the early age of nineteen, and Baglivi (1668-1707), a pupil of Malpighi, and a man of universal education--carried out and elaborated the first expressions of this author. Borelli was the author of the oft-quoted maxim: "He who diagnoses well cures well."
The iatromathematical system held ground for some time in Italy, and also found followers elsewhere. For instance, Dodart (1664-1707). of Paris, explained the voice on the mechanical principles enunciated by Borelli and by{ 173} Quesnay (1694-1774). the tirst permanent secretary of the Academy of Surgery in Paris. In England this explanation was adopted by a number of followers, none of whom, however, was eminent enough to justify special mention here. In Germany it obtained a certain amount of favor, but seems not to have attracted any very eminent disciples.
The iatromechanical school ran a course not unprofit' able to science, yet was unfruitful of real advance in the domain of practical medicine. The man of this particular age, who, more than any other, exerted an influence destined to be prolonged even to the present time, and probably much longer, who had a cool, clear, and unprejudiced spirit, and who sought the true value of medicine, and recompense for the same in the benefits which it brings to the sick, without scorning or neglecting its scientific side, was Thomas Sydenham, bora at Winford Eagle in 1624. a student at Oxford in 1642, and recipient of a bachelor's degree of medicine in 1648.