Tractatus de Ventriculo et Intestinis

1677

Health Sciences Historical Collection WZ250 G561 1677

[London]: Typis E.F. Prostat Venalis Apud Henricum Brome

Tractatus de Ventriculo et Intestinis is a work that deals with the stomach and intestine, the peritoneum, omentum, abdominal muscles, skin, hair, and fat. In addition to giving a theory of digestion and fermentation, Glisson also discusses embryogenesis; a process that he studied when he was an assistant to Dr William Harvey. Importantly, Tractatus expands on Glisson’s theory of ‘irritability’ or response to stimuli of all tissues – a topic later made famous by Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), the Swiss anatomist. Much of Glisson’s physiology was philosophical, and toward the end of the book he refers to ‘the sweetness of speculation’.