SANTORIO, Santorio (Sanctorius).

Londini: Impensis Sam. Smith & Ben. Walford…1701

12mo, pp. (xxii), XII, 213, engraved frontispiece showing Santorio in his weighing chair. Title within double ruled border. Modern calf antique.

First edition to be edited with a commentary by Dr. Martin Lister. With this book Santorio founded the physiology of metabolism, and introduced quantitative experimentation into biological science. He introduced exact methods of measurement, with himself as the subject. Using the balance as an instrument of weight control, the pulse-clock and the thermometer, he measured pulse-rate, respiration, body temperature and daily variations in weight relative to ingestion and excretion. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Santorio was regarded, with Harvey, as one of the greatest figures in the history of physiology. See G&M 573 (first edition of 1614); also Foster, Lectures on the history of physiology, pp. 145–147.

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