Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 609

NICOLAUS STENO (1638-1686) Elementorum myologiae specimen. Ex typographia sub signo Stellae 1667 [8] 123 [1] pp., 7 fold. plates. 23.9 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 608

This work is one of medical history's great classics of physiology and embryology as well as being the first modern treatise on geology. The book actually consists of three parts: a section dealing with Steno's investigations of muscle action, a second section concerning his dissection of the head of a dogfish shark which led to a new geological truth, and a final section concerning the role of the ovaries in conception. Steno showed that muscle mass does not increase with contraction which was contrary to the mechanistic concepts of Borelli. He concluded that the apparent increase in mass represented a change in shape rather than in bulk. He also demonstrated that heart tissue was true muscle and attempted to explain the mechanics of muscle action through mathematical formulae. While dissecting the head of a small shark Steno observed that its teeth were the same structures he had seen in inland geological formations. He reasoned that they had been preserved through a process of sedimentation, which indicated that the sea had once covered much of what is now dry land. He concluded that the sedimentary process resulted in stratification of the earth and thus contributed one of the basic principles upon which modern geology is based. As a result of his dissection of a female shark's genitalia, Steno also showed, along with Harvey, that the ovaries of the female animal are the seat of conception, and not a coagulum as was widely believed.

Cited references: Cushing S402 (Amsterdam ed., 1669); Garrison-Morton 577; Osler 4021; Waller 9223

Gift of John Martin, M.D.