Abstract
I have no doubt that a long and uninterrupted account of observations on muscles would be distasteful to the reader; accordingly, since variety is the spice of life, I have decided to add to what has gone before material which should provide an opportunity to review various isolated observations.
OPH 24, vol. II, 149–155: Canis carchariae dissectum caput is the second of the three treatises, which Steno published jointly in Florence in 1667. The translation of Canis Carchariae is by Alex J. Pollock, of the Notes by Mrs. Maria Grandt, Lecturer, Copenhagen, and James G. Gordon. The Latin text of the printed book was compared critically with the printer’s manuscript of the Royal Danish library. Notes are from Scherz, GP 123 ff., that relates to the translation pages, GP 73 ff. Additions by the editors are marked *.
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Notes
- 1.
Lorenzo Magalotti, in his letter of October 26th, 1666 to the Archbishop of Siena, Ascanio II Piccolomini describes the capture of the Canis Carchariae. Adding a drawing of the head he tells that a French fishing-boat in the previous week had observed the head of a Lamia some miles from Leghorn, between Gorgona and Meloria, “accompanied by thousands of stupid fishes”, the reason why the fishers called the animal a sea-owl. Finally the shark was pulled ashore with a coil, tied to a tree and killed by blows. The enormous belly with its bowels was thrown into the sea, the liver was rated to 300, and the fish itself to 3500 lb (N. St. Epistolae 922 f.—Scherz, Vom Wege 75 f. One pound then was 339, 54 g). As C. Dati wrote to Ottavio Falconieri many curious people were present at the dissection, cf. Mercati, Metallotheca etc. p. xxxiv.
- 2.
A description of this Charcharodon Rondeletii, now called carcharodon Carcharias, Linné 1758 is by T. Jeffery Parker, Professor of Biology in the University of Otago, New Zealand: Notes on Carcharodon Rondeletii. In: Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887. Nr. III pp. 27–40 with 5 plates.
- 3.
Plinius 9. Nat. Hist. 40 (78): Planorum piscium alterum est genus… quos bovis, lamiae, aquilae, ranae nominibus graeci appellant.
- 4.
Carlo Roberto Dati (1619–1675), the author of Vite dei pittori antichi (Firenze 1667) and member of the Accademia del Cimento. He was one of the most learned philologists of Italy and from his twenty first year a member of the Accademia della Crusca, and as a pupil of Galileo also much interested in natural science (OPH 2, 323).
- 5.
Michele Mercati (1541–1593), born in San Miniato (Toscana), doctor of philosophy and medicine and a great naturalist. Nominated by Pius V as prefect to the Vatican Gardens and under Sextus V put in charge of the Museo Vaticano, especially its collections of minerals and fossils, and Archiater. The manuscript of his Michaelis Mercati Samminiatensis Metallotheca Opus Posthumum… Opera & studio Joannis Mariae Lancisii… Illustratum. Romae 1717 was in Steno's time in the hands of C. Dati. (Capparoni, Profili 1, 53 ss.). The plates borrowed by Steno are found on pp. 332–333.—In the MS. the text here runs… spectantes, meis usibus eam concessit, qua, Lamiae (Ut ille appellat) caput et dentes expressos vides. The quotation (from Ut ea quae…, glossopetrae variant) in chapter LXIX, pp. 333–334 (followed by chapters on Glossopetrae mediae and parvae) has supposita instead of supposititia. Mercati’s work, the source of Stensen’s Plates was not published until 1717, see copy in transcripts.
- 6.
See Gulielmi Rondeleti. .. Libri De Piscibus Marinis, in quibus verae Piscium effigies expressae sunt… Lugduni 1554. lib. XIII, pp. 390–393, especially p. 391. A great deal of Rondelet's text has been cut out. The MS. has contenti, yet both Mercati and Rondelet contecti.
- 7.
A description of the ampullary tubes and the system of mucous canals discovered in 1664 by Stensen in selachian fishes and described and carried on by Stefano Lorenzini in the Torpedo (1678). The author pays great homage to Stensen, his teacher, and to Holger Jakobsen (Jacobæus).
- 8.
Here Steno describes the ampullary tubes and the system of mucous canals discovered by him in 1664 in selachian fishes, and later described and carried on by his pupil Stefano Lorenzini in the Torpedo (1678); this treatise pays great homage to Steno, his teacher, and Holger Jacobsen (Jacobæus) (1650–1701). (Cf. R. Spärck in Scherz, Indice 88 s. and Cole, A History 374 ss.). The last sentence perventum esset is in St.'s hand, instead of some crossed out formulations.
- 9.
As to the Rajae Anatome and Steno’s first discovery of the mucous canals, see OPH I, 196.
- 10.
Francesco Redi (1626–1697), an eminent physician in Florence and physician of the court from November 28th 1666, was also a great naturalist and poet (Cf. his Bacco in Toscana). He was a member of the Accademia del Cimento and worked energetically for the great Italian dictionary of the Crusca-Academy. Both his Esperienze intorno alla generazione degli insetti (Firenze 1668), where he succesfully attacked the general belief in generatio spontanea, and his most important publication Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi che si trovano negli animali viventi (Firenze 1684) on various animals prove him to be an observer and discoverer of high rank. He collaborated with Steno, and was congenial to him also through his modesty and religious uplift.
- 11.
Here Stensen describes the lateral system of canals deciaring himself ignorant of the purpose of these canals.
- 12.
See Ars Sanctorii Sanctorii… De statica Medicina… Venetiis, 1634. Santorio published his doctrine of transpiratio insensibilis in 1614. It was quoted by Stensen in the Chaos-MS (fol. 56v).
- 13.
Cf. OPH, I, 101. 186. 196.
- 14.
At Stensen's time the nerves were looked upon as hollow, an idea attacked by him in his myology, where he demonstrated geometrically that the swelling of muscle-contraction was not to be explained by a fluid led from the brain to the muscle by the canals of the nerves. See OPH. II, 76.
- 15.
Here Stensen correctly describes the stem which, in the plagiostomes, fixes the eye ball in the orbit.
- 16.
Giovanni Guglielmo Riva (1627–1677), famous surgeon at the Hospital of S. Maria della Consolazione in Rome; in 1664 he accompanied Cardinal Flavio Chigi to France and was archiater of Clement IX from 1667. Stensen met him first (May 1666) in the Villa Ludovisi together with M. Malpighi, became his cordial friend and also belonged to his private academy in Via della Pedacchia, the most active centre of anatomy in Rome, teaching it and practising also on corpses. Riva gave a first true and graphic description of the chyliferous system, left a manuscript De Latice in animante, i.e. on fluid which must have interested Stensen exceedingly, and was also known for his experiments with transfusion. His interest in the crystalline fluid of the eye is shown in a letter on an observation de restitutione humorum oculi. His pupil G. M. Lancisi (1654–1720) published Mercati's Metallotheca (Mieli, Gli Scienziati Italiàni 213–219).
- 17.
Haller writes in Bibliotheca Anatomica (Tiguri [Zürich] 1774–1777) 1, 493, when mentioning this passage: Cl. Phelypeaux hypothesin probat, processus ciliares ejus lentis convexitatem deprimere (Ibid 1, 513). Haller mentions Vincentii Phelipeaux de praecipius actionibus automatice in homine Lovan, 1662 (OPH v. 2, 325). Stensen met Phelipeaux in Bourdelot Academy in summer 1665.
- 18.
These experiments were never published and the notes referring to them have in all probability been lost. Perhaps Winslow had them (Cf. L'Autobiographie de I. B. Winslow publ. par V. Maar. Paris 1912. p. 85 ss.). The transparentis after corneae in the MS. is from Stensen's hand.
- 19.
Three ounces mean about 93 gramme.
- 20.
Stensen was the first to mention this Cavitas rhomboidales; the name he gave it, is the one still in use.
- 21.
This is known as Stensen’s experiment, demonstrated at several locations during his travels. Not mentioned in the short report is that the investigator may have used a large curved needle to insert a band from one side of the thoraco-lumbar region crossing the body in front of the aorta to exit on the other side of the animal. When tied over the back of the animal, the aorta was compressed towards the spinal column causing immediate paralysis lasting as long as the band was kept tight. Ischaemia of the spinal medulla causes such immediate paralysis while ischaemia of the muscles of the limbs does not. (TK).
- 22.
In the MS.: qvarta. A braccio fiorentino was 58 cm long.
- 23.
As early as in the treatise Historia dissecti piscis ex canum genere Stensen recognizes the real use of the shark-teeth: Interiores ordines sursum inversi gingivis firmiter erant infixi; ut adeoqve ex tam ubere dentium numero minima pars usul esse possit, nisi delapsis èxterioribus interiores sensim succederent (OPH 2, 150). In Prodromus De solido there is no doubt any more as to the use of the teeth-rows (OPH. 2, 216 s.).
- 24.
Due to cautious method, perceptible also in several expressions of the MS., Stensen—though at that time probably quite sure of the organic origin of fossils—retained his statement until by all means of observation and conclusion, there could be no doubt left.
- 25.
Thomas Bartholin visited Malta in 1644, (cf. Garboe, Thomas Bartholin p. 1, 65 ff.).
- 26.
Oluf Borch, Stensen's teacher and friend in Copenhagen, published a treatise on stone-building in cavities in rocks as well as in living organisms (De generatione lapidum in macro-et microcosmo. In: Acta med. et phil. Haffn. V. (1680). The MS. as intueamur.
- 27.
See Tertullian, De Pallio,c.2.
- 28.
See Plato, Critias 11B.
- 29.
Tacitus, Annales II, 46.
- 30.
The Arabian alchemists Jabir and Al-Razi in the eighth and ninth century taught a new theory, the germ of which is contained in Aristotle's Meteorology, viz. that metals are composed of mercury and sulphur and are generated in the earth from these. (I. R. Partington, A short History of Chemistry. 2nd Ed. London 1951, p. 29 f.).
- 31.
In his Prodromus De solido… Stensen speaks more extensively of the meaning of this and related terms (OPH 2, 190 ff.).
- 32.
Spiritus volatilis means volatile matter (OPH 2, 327), probably alcohol.
- 33.
Pierre Borel (1620–1689) promoted to M. D. in Montpellier came to Paris in 1653, where shortly afterwards he became Conseiller et Médicin Ordinaire du Roi. Stensen had already as a student in Copenhagen read Borel's Historiarum et observationum medicophysicarum centuriae IV (Parisiis 1656) and made extracts from them, also f. inst. concerning fossils; at Th6venot's lie often met Borel and attended his chemical experiments together with Borch (Epistolae 1, Ss., 2, 907.). The experiment Steno here remembers is reported by Borch from the meeting of the Thévenot academy on the 9th December 1664. Borel then took a little water, added to it a little sulphuric acid—according to Borch's supposition—and a little butter of antimony of a watery consistency; this mixture coagulated instantaneously, and the vessel could be turned upside down without a drop running out (J. Nordstrøm, Swammerdamiana 63).
- 34.
See, moreover, Petri Gassendi… Opera Omnia… Lugduni 1658, vol. II. lib. III De Lapidibus ac Metallis c. I. p. 112. In Stensen's Chaos-Manuscript of 1659 many extracts of Gassendi's works may be found. (See Scherz, N.-St. und G. Galilei 16f.).
- 35.
May-dew was used for certain alchemical purposes, but may be mentioned here by Stensen because the air in spring is full of vapours and small particles emanating from plants and soil, absorbed at this time of the year by the dew falling. The sedimentum viscosum, which Steno says is formed ja dew and rain-water, is probably only the sediment produced in course of time by the growth of algae and other microorganisms (OPH 2, 327 and Garboe, Ædelstene 124).
- 36.
It means a crust of carbonate or lime. (OPH 2, 327).
- 37.
*The paragraph, But … kinds. is written on a separate small piece of paper. This paragraph may well give the reason for Stensen’s exclamation that follows: Qvam bene itaqve conveniunt omnia!.
- 38.
See Saggi de naturali esperienze fatte nel’ Accademia del Cimento… e descritte dal Segretario di essa Accademia, 1666, 182 ff. Magalotti was the secretary of the Academy.
- 39.
Antonio Nardi was a pupil of Galileo. His Scene Toscane is a scientific miscellany in nine parts. The MS. which has never been published is in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, in MS. Galilei, vol. 130.
- 40.
Cf. Plato, Timæus, 24 E ff. and Plinius, Naturales historiae libri XXXVI, lib. II, c. 85 ff.
- 41.
Manfredo Settala (1600–1680), a great traveller and linguist, but especially well known on account of his great mechanical ability, made many ingenious pieces of apparatus and models, as well as several fine microscopes. He held a canonship in Milan, in which town he also laid the foundation of his large collection of paintings, antiqvities, natural curiosities and models of maehines. See Museum Septalanium Manfredi Septalae… Pauli Maria Terzagi… geniali laconismo descriplum. Dertonae 1664… Cf. Epistolae 1, 33 s.
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Kardel, T., Maquet, P. (2018). 2.23 A Carcharodon-Head Dissected. In: Nicolaus Steno. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55047-2_34
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