| Borelli,
Giovanni Alfonso , 1608–79, Italian physiologist,
physicist, astronomer, and mathematician; son of a Spanish infantryman.
His wide interests led to original contributions in many fields, including
anatomy, epidemiology, the study of fermentation, volcanology, magnetism,
fluid dynamics, and the observation of comets. In his study of disease
he concluded, against most contemporaries, that meteorological and astrological
causes were not at work, but that something entered the body and could
be remedied chemically. In Euclides restitutus he reworked Euclid's
Elements into a more concise form. He is perhaps best known for
his De motu animalium (1679), a study of the mechanical basis of
respiration, circulation, and muscular contraction in animals. |