Iatrophysics

Iatrophysics or iatromechanics (fr. Greek) is the medical application of physics. It provides an explanation for medical practices with mechanical principles. It was a school of medicine in the seventeenth century which attempted to explain physiological phenomena in mechanical terms. Believers of iatromechanics thought that physiological phenomena of the human body followed the laws of physics. It was related to iatrochemistry in studying the human body in a systematic manner based on observations from the natural world though it had more emphasis on mathematical models rather than chemical processes.

The Age of Enlightenment was an era of radically changing ways of thought in Western politics, philosophy, and science. Major sociological changes occurred in the Enlightenment, as well as industrial and scientific. In medicine, the Enlightenment brought several discoveries and studies that were impacted by changing ways of thought. For example, discovery of capillaries were made by Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694). Jean Baptiste von Helmonni (1577-1644) also was the first to consider digestion a fermentation process. He also identified hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Pathological anatomy and clinical observation were also being integrated into the medical curriculum. The Enlightenment also directly influenced the field of Iatrophysics through the development of Anton von Leeuwenhoek's microscope, the advancement of the field of ophthalmology through the use of physics by Descartes, and Isaac Newton's law of gravity and idea of gravitational force.

Iatrophysicists drew inspiration from various established physical phenomena in order to explain how certain biological processes took place and how this can be applied towards medicine.

A key component of iatrophysical anatomy was the study of particles. This was particularly influenced by 17th century developments in microbiology, the most prominent being the microscope. Anton von Leeuwenhoeck was a Dutch scientist who is known for his use of the microscope for identifying single-celled organisms. He was also the first to observe muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries. Another famous figure in microbiology at the time was Robert Hooke, an English scientist most famous for his use of the microscope for the discovery of cells. In his most famous work, Micrographia (1665), he attributed “occult properties” as elementary “contrivances of nature”. Like Galileo, he shared an iatrophysical viewpoint and saw living organisms as groups of small machines. The development of the microscope was largely influential in this view.

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