Elasticity of Animal Fiber: Motion, Tone, and Life of the Fiber Body

Abstract

This chapter expounds upon the concept of elasticity of animal fiber. Addressing the body image conceived by the iatromechanists and the role played by the elasticity of the animal fibers within that conception, it argues that the iatromechanists imagined the body just like a muscular heart. Focusing on the idea of involuntary motion and its cognates, tones, tensions, and vibrations, it traces the important shift in the view of motion from the classical to the modern via Harvey’s contribution to the development of the idea of motion. The vitalists of the second half of the century considered the elasticity of animal fiber as a merely dead, mechanical property, but the concept of elasticity constitutes the vital link binding mechanism and vitalism.