On the movement of animals

on the passions and errors of the soul, published in 1525. Such criticisms, however, do not detract from the main value of this book as a clear exposition in English of interesting and, in their own day, influential theories of the emotions. First of all, we want to compliment Dr Paul Maquet from Belgium for this highly accomplished translation of a difficult text. "latrophysics" is a concept in the history of medicine that is immediately associated with the Italian school of Borelli and Bellini. We only have to think of their influence upon such scholars as Archibald Pitcairne and Hermann Boerhaave, to evaluate the importance of Borelli's work De motu animalium in the history of science and medicine. Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1679) was a contemporary of Malpighi during his stay at Pisa as a professor of mathematics. Malpighi was deeply impressed by Borelli's scientific methods of studying muscular movement in animals along the lines of mathematics, which had never been done before. We may assume that Borelli was interested in Malpighi's concepts of the structure of muscular tissue. These elements can be found in De motu animalium, which was published in two parts in Rome in 1680 and 1681. A German translation of the first part of this work was prepared by Max Mengeringhausen in 1927 and published in Leipzig in the series of Oswalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften. To the best of my knowledge, no other attempts were made until Dr Maquet started his translation of the complete work, advised by several highly qualified Belgian scholars. No wonder the representative of Springer Verlag eagerly accepted the manuscript for a worldwide publication. It got what it deserved, a distinguished layout, a very trim and neat printing, a glossary, and Borelli's eighteen tables bound separately inside the back cover. May this book stimulate scholars to study Borelli again, not only for his importance to iatrophysicists, but also in relation to his Italian contemporaries. No library of scientific standing should miss this book! The history of English philanthropy in the eighteenth century has long been both under-researched and under-conceptualized, a deplorable situation now largely put to rights, thanks to the perceptive thematic and chronological clarifications in Donna Andrew's intelligent, well-documented, and lucid monograph. One is above all glad to see that her interpretative framework is sufficiently ample to embrace the complex texture of motives and expectations surrounding Georgian charitable impulses. The desire …