Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena: A Survey of Nineteenth-Century Cases

capillaries between arterial and venous blood vessels. Even then Borelli much to his embarrassment could not see them. Similar light is cast on Malpighi's discoveries in his studies of the tongue, the organ of touch, the kidneys, glands, and polypus of the heart. Special mention should be made of Malpighi's dissertation on embryology. Here clearly Malpighi saw that there was a rich unexplored field for microscopic study. This work has been recently analysed with the greatest diligence by Howard B. Adelmann. It is, of course, of the first importance in the history of embryology. Malpighi quotes Harvey to the effect that 'the primary outlines of nature lie hidden in the depths of night, and by reason of their subtlety escape the keenest reason no less than the most piercing eye'. Nevertheless he sees on the first day of incubation, the embryo unfolding from its pre-existent form in a way that gave rise to the doctrine of preformation, and later to its perverted version of emboitement. To those interested in the history of science, the last section of this book is of great interest. This comprises Malpighi's reply to the letter on the study of Medicine by 'modern' doctors from his colleague and bitter opponent at Bologna, Giovanni Sbaraglia. This letter, clearly directed at Malpighi, engages in a debate between the value of ancient and modem medicine which reflects the situation in most European countries during the second half of the seventeenth century. Sbaraglia praises the achievements of the ancients, and scoffs at the advances of the 'modems' particularly those in 'detailed anatomy achieved by the microscope'. These discoveries he dubs as quite useless in the treatment of a patient. It is an old quarrel which has continued until very recent times. Malpighi replies to these accusations paragraph by paragraph with great patience and in praiseworthily-controlled language. In doing so as Belloni points out, he reveals his scientific credo. Much of this altercation smacks of sterile polemics but Malpighi's declarations of his belief in the tenets of Francis Bacon, his accurate assessment of the achievements of his own century, and his perception of the goals of the medical science of the future, reveal his qualities as a scientific thinker in a new and vivid light. Professor Belloni's work will be cordially welcomed by all those who feel the need of an integrated presentation of Malpighi's work and outlook. It provides too a nucleus around which to set Italian medico-biological science of the seventeenth century, and is thus a most valuable contribution to the history of its country and time.