A Concise History of Medicine #265863

Some good foundations have been laid, it is true, in the century previous, and men were at work in the true scientific spirit. Great masters had stimulated their successors to study in the essential preliminary subjects, the constitution and functions of the body. The mighty Boer-haave of Holland (1668-1738) had revolutionized clinical observation; Morgagni of Italy (1682-1771) had "introduced anatomical thinking into medicine" (Virchow), and had done something, the same service for pathology which Haller of Germany (1708-77) did a generation later for physiology; while John Hunter (1728-93) had not only introduced capital improvements into operative surgery, but had set the pace in research into anatomical and physiological problems.