BOOK : Traite des sens
AUTHOR : Claude-Nicolas Le Cat
YEAR : 1744
Claude-Nicolas Le Cat was a French anatomist, surgeon, and physician in the early to mid eighteenth century. His openness to medical and technical innovation made him a force in the world of lithotomy (removal of “stones”) and cararact surgery. Through this work presented here we see that he was also greatly interested in the physiology of the nervous system. Le Cat grew to think of the body/the nervous system as a kind of hydrualic machine. He hypothesized that the nerve force was actually a fluid that passed through tiny pipes and tubes within the nerves! Which was actually quite a popular theory among scientists of the time. Le Cat also stated that his clinical experience led him to believe that the brain tissue possesses significant sensitivity which, of course, it does not.
Although his theories about nerve fluid and touchy brains may have been incorrect, his work does include some incredibly detailed and beautiful illustrations of the nervous system. This book is Le Cat’s most important work. It was first published in 1740 and again in 1742 and was the only part that was set in type of a greater work on physiology, which was never published. The book includes six sections, introductions to : sensation, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and vision.
Hay que ocultarse, sino qué sentido tiene.
