es in explaining their function, he added
not a little to the anatomical and physiological knowledge of the time
in their regard. He seems to have been one of the first to recognize
the fact that in the higher animals the heart may continue to beat for
a considerable time after the animal is apparently dead; and, indeed,
that by irritation of the removed heart, voluntary contractions may be
brought about which will continue spontaneously for some moments.

{148}

With regard to the objections made by some, that such studies as these
upon muscles could scarcely be expected to produce any direct result
for the treatment of disease, or in the ordinary practice of medicine,
Stensen said in reply that it is only on the basis of the anatomical,
physiological, and pathological observation that progress in medicine
is to be looked for. In spite, then, of the discouragement of the
many, who look always for immediate practical results, Stensen
continued his investigation, and even proposed to make an extended
study of the mechanism of the muscular action.

In the meantime, however, there had gradually been coming into his
life another element which was to prove more absorbing than even his
zeal for scientific discovery. It is this which constitutes the
essential index of the man's character and has been sadly
misunderstood by many of his biographers.

Sir Michael Foster, of Cambridge, England, in his "Lectures on the
History of Physiology," originally delivered as the Lane Lectures at
Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, said:--

While thus engaged, still working at physiology, Stensen turned his
versatile mind to other problems, as well as to those of comparative
anatomy, and especially to those of the infant, indeed hardly as yet
born, science of geology. His work "De solido intra solidum" is
thought by geologists to be a brilliant effort toward the beginning
of their science

In 1672 he returned for a while to his native city of {149}
Copenhagen, but within two years he was back again at Florence; and
then there came to him, while as yet a young man of some thirty-six
summers, a sudden and profound change in his life.

In his early days he had heard much, too much perhaps, of the
doctrines of Luther. Probably he had been repelled by the austere
devotion which ruled the paternal roof. And, as his answer to
Bossuet shows, his university life and studies, his intercourse with
the active in