r sessions of the Congress had
closed. They erected to his memory a tablet with the following
scription:

"Nicolae Stenonis imaginem vides hospes quam aere collato docti
amplius mille ex universo terrarum orbe insculpendam curarunt in
memoriam ejus diei IV cal. Octobr. an. MDCCCLXXXI quo geologi post
conventum Bononiae habitum praeside Joanne Capellinio equite hue
peregrinati sunt atque adstantibus legatis flor Municipii et R.
Instituti Altiorum doctrinarum cineres viri inter geologos et
anatomicos praestantissimi in hujus templi hypogaeo laurea corona
honoris gratique animi ergo honestaverunt." [Footnote 12]

[Footnote 12: You behold here, traveller, the bust of Nicholas
Steno as it was set up by more than a thousand scientists from all
over the world, as a memorial to him, on the fourth of the Kalends
of October, 1881. The geologists of the world, after their meeting
in Bologna, under the presidency of Count John Capellini, made a
pilgrimage to his tomb, and in the presence of the chosen
representatives of the municipality, and of the learned professors
of the University, honored the mortal ashes of this man,
illustrious among geologists and anatomists.]

{161}

Stensen's work brought him in contact with some of the distinguished
men of the seventeenth century, all of whom learned to appreciate his
breadth of intelligence and acuity of judgment. We have already
mentioned his epistolary relation with Spinoza, and have said
something about the controversy with Leibnitz, into which, in spite of
his disinclination to controversy generally, he was drawn by the
circumstances of the time and the solicitation of friends. Another
great thinker of the century with whom he was brought into intimate
relationship was Des Cartes, the distinguished philosopher. In fact,
Des Cartes's system of thought influenced Stensen not a little, and he
felt, when describing the function of muscles in the human body, and
especially when he demonstrated that the heart was a muscle, that the
mechanical notions he was thus introducing into anatomy were likely to
prove confirmatory of Des Cartes's philosophic speculations. Almost
more than any other, Stensen was the father of many ideas that have
since become common, with regard to the physics of the human body and
its qualities as a machine.

With his breadth of view, from familiarity {162} with the progress of
science generally in his tim