JOH.

ALPHONSI BORELLI
Neapolitan; Mat,;eflos Profe./Joris,
D E

MOTU ANIMALIUM~
PARS PRIMA.
Editio Nova, a plurimis mendis repurgata,.
AC
DISSERTATIONIBUS PHYSICO-MECHANICIS
DE
J.l1otu lvfUSCULOR(]J.W~ E1' DE EFFERrESCENi'L1 ~
ET FERI.11EN'I A'I'IO,NE,

CLARISSIMI VIRl
J 0 H. B ERN 0 U L L I I
i\-L\THESEOS PROFESSORIS BASILEENSIS,

Auc.ta, & ornata.

H .d G ,iE C 0 .iff I T U JI,

Apud i' E T RUM G 0 SSE

MDCCXLIll.
 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli

On the Movement
of Animals

Translated by
Paul Maquet

With 18 Tables Inside Back Cover

Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg New York
London Paris Tokyo
 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1679)
formerly: Professor of Mathematics in Naples

Dr. Paul Maquet

25, Thier Bosset, B-4070 Aywaille, Belgium

The Portrait of Giovanni Alfonso Borelli on the cover was reproduced

by kind permission of the Director of the Vatican Library.

ISBN-l3: 978-3-642-73814-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-73812-8

DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-73812-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in· Publication Data
Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso, 1608-1679. [De motu animalium. English] On the movement
of animals / Giovanni Alfonso Borelli; translated by P. Maquet. Translation of: De
motu animalium. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Animal locomotion-Early
works to 1800. I. Title. QP301.B613 1989 59l.l '852-dcI9 88-21841.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illus-
trations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in the other ways, and
storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted
under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its version
of June 24, 1985, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Violations fall under the
prosecution act of the German Copyright Law.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989

2124/3140-543210- Printed on acid-free paper

 Translator's Preface

Acknowledgement
De Motu Animalium of Borelli is sometimes referred to in papers on biome-
chanics. Having acquired the book, I was amazed by the concepts which the
figures illustrating the work suggested. These figures reminded me of diagrams
published recently to support ideas considered as new or even revolutionary.
My curiosity thus aroused, I attempted to find somebody willing to translate
the book, but in vain. Therefore, I returned to my Latin grammar and diction-
ary which I had stored away more than forty years ago. After some difficulty in
the first pages, I finally understood and could proceed more quickly. I in-
tended to limit myself to the first chapters but, stumbling from curiosity to
curiosity, I arrived at the end of the book after more than a year. Fortunately,
Professor Charles Fontinoy (Liege) helped me for the understanding of the
Introduction and Prefaces which are particularly literary and difficult. Profes-
sor Jean Lecomte (Liege) read the translation of the second part and kindly
commented on it. Professor Robert Halleux (Liege) spent much time helping
my endeavour. He gave me the meaning of some words and expressions the
understanding of which requires a good knowledge of the history of sciences in
the seventeenth century, and he patiently answered my many questions. His
help was invaluable. Professor Halleux and his team also collected information
on the author and his work. I thus learned that no complete translation of De
Motu Animalium was known so far. Mr Ronald Furlong, F.R.C.S. helped me in
the editing the book. As usual, also, my wife indefatigably typed and corrected
my writing, suggesting improvements here and there. After I submitted a first
draft to Springer-Verlag, Dr G6tze, enthusiastically agreed to join in the ven-
ture and publish the De Motu Animalium in its English version.

The Author
But who was Borelli? Settle (in Gillispie's Dictionary of Scientific Biographies,
vol 2, 1970, New York, pp 306-314) has published a thorough study of his life
on which most of the following notes are based.
Born in Naples on 28 January 1608 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli was the son of
a Spanish infantryman and his Italian wife. He became a student of Castelli
along with Torricelli. He must have been in Rome when Galileo published his

V
Dialogo and during his subsequent trial. In 1635 or shortly thereafter Castelli's
recommendation obtained for him the public lectureship in mathematics in
Messina, Sicily. There he published several works among which one was on
fevers which he had observed during an epidemic, On the cause of the malig-
nant fevers of Sicily in the years 1647 and 1648. In 1658 he was given the chair
of mathematics at Pisa. Malpighi who was the professor of theoretical medi-
cine recalled: "What progress I have made in philosophizing stems from Bor-
elli. On the other hand, dissecting living animals at his home and observing
their parts, I worked hard to satisfy his very keen curiosity". Malpighi in turn
focused Borelli's interest on the movements of living creatures (Boorstin D.,
The Discoverers, New York 1983, Random House).
Borelli was one of the most distinguished members and seems to have been
the principal animus of the Accademia del Cimento, organized formally for
purely experimental research by Prince Leopold, brother of the Grand Duke of
Tuscany, Ferdinand II. While in Pisa Borelli wrote De Vi Percussion is pub-
lished in 1667, and De motionibus naturalibus a gravitate pendentibus published
in 1670. In 1670 he also published Historia et meteorologica incendii Aetnaei
anni 1669 (Regio Julio). He was one of the founders of "iatrophysics", the
application of physics to medicine, corresponding in a wider sense to what we
call today biomechanics. In 1675 he joined the Accademia Reale founded in
Rome by Queen Christina of Sweden converted to Catholicism and living in
this city. Hoping to be received as a member of the Academie Royale des
Sciences, recently created by Louis XIV in Paris, he presented as credentials
two voluminous manuscripts, De Motu Animalium. But, as he had only one
copy, he would not trust it to the unreliable mail between Rome and Paris.
He ended his life poorly in Rome where he accepted the hospitality of the
fathers of the Casa di S. Pantaleo. For his last two years he taught mathematics
at its Scuole Pie. Suffering from a pleurisy, he died in the night of 31 December
1679.
Finally in 1679 Queen Christina had agreed to bear the costs of the publica-
tion of the main work of Borelli's life, De Motu Animalium. This was published
after his death, the first part in 1680, the second in 1681.

The Work
De Motu Animalium thus comprises two parts. The first one is divided into 23
chapters and 224 propositions and deals with the movements of the limbs and
displacements of man and animals.
Borelli appears as a genial precursor. He raises problems some of which
stimulated the curiosity and endeavours of many generations of researchers
and found their solution only recently. For example, Borelli showed that the
muscles act on the limbs with short lever arms, whereas the part of the body
and load thus carried act with much longer lever arms. Consequently, the joints
transmit forces which are several times the weight of the supported part of the
body. Pauwels in 1935 surprised the community of orthopaedic surgeons when

VI
he compared the hip with scales provided with unequal arms and asserted that
during normal walking the hip joint thus transmits a force more than four times
the body weight. Borelli already knew this.
Borelli calculated the force exerted by an arm carrying a load in different
positions. Only in 1954 did Pauwels solve this problem accurately by criticizing
and correcting a previous work of Braune and Fischer.
Borelli experimentally determined the position of the centre of gravity in the
human body. Only in 1889 did Braune and Fischer improve on this research by
using frozen cadavers and parts of cadavers which they balanced on steel rods
in different planes.
Borelli considered the gait of man and other animals in different conditions.
Between 1895 and 1904 Braune and Fischer and then Fischer alone, using a
photographic method, published a thorough study of normal human gait pro-
viding the mathematical basis for further research.
In his calculation of forces, however, Borelli considers that the force equals
the resistance only if they are directly opposed. In most instances the acting
force is equal to twice the resistance. In other words, for him, the action is not
always equal to the reaction. The equality of action and reaction was to be
asserted by Newton some years later, in 1687.
In part one the author also analyses running, jumping, moving on ice with
skates, the flight of birds, and the displacements of fishes and other animals in
water. He ends by describing a diving-bell, a diving-suit, and a submarine.
The second part of De Motu Animalium is divided into 22 chapters and 233
propositions. In this part Borelli deals with physiology and analyses the work-
ing of the viscera considered as machines.
Borelli is a mechanist. For him the operations thus described are carried out
by displacements of particles which are either simply in contact or fitting into
each other. These particles are provided with proper shapes. They are absorbed
by the organs and tissues through canals the orifices of which are shaped like
the appropriate particles and which act as a sieve. Chemical reactions, called
fermentations, require huge spaces and stasis of the fermentable substances.
Such spaces and delay in the circulation are not found in the body except in
the digestive tract and in the testicles. There are thus probably no fermenta-
tions outside the digestive tract and the testicles. Biochemistry is ignored and
was to develop on a scientific basis only much later.
In all his work Borelli relies on an axiom which he does not question: Na-
ture always acts using the simplest and most economical means. The differ-
ences which are observed are due to mechanical necessities. Conversely, when
Nature carries out an operation, it must be concluded that this operation is the
simplest possible, that it is carried out according to the laws of mechanics and
that it is impossible to do otherwise or better. Such was also the opinion of
Descartes.
The author keeps comparing the anatomy and physiology of man, animals
terrestrial as well as aquatic and flying, and plants. From this comparison he
draws general conclusions.
Borelli develops his subject by logical reasoning based on examples taken in
everyday life and on experiments in the laboratory. Common sense prevails.

VII
He writes: if blood-letting was actually useful, more febrile patients would heal
in France and Spain where they are all subjected to blood-letting than in Italy
and elsewhere where they are not. If blood-letting was actually harmful more
patients would die in France and Spain. Since no difference is observed, he
concludes that blood-letting is neither very useful nor very harmful.
To test whether the heart contains a vital flame he opens the chest of a live
stag, incises a ventricle and sets a finger in the heart cavity. His finger is not
burned. But it is squeezed transversely. This entails deductions on the pulsa-
tion of the heart. Introducing a thermometer in the heart shows him that the
temperature there is 40°C and is the same as in the other viscera.
Borelli thus not only observes but also measures. He measures the weight
which a muscle or a group of muscles can raise and hence calculates the force
exerted by the muscles or the group of muscles.
He also designs geometric models. Using such a model he calculates the in-
crease in volume of the chest due to inspired air. He builds a spirometer to
measure the expired air and the reserve air. With a geometric model he demon-
strates that the intercostal muscles are involved in inspiration only whereas
they cannot provoke expiration which occurs by resilience.
Borelli, however, asserts that there is no attraction in Nature. He claims that
almost everybody finds the concept of attraction ridiculous (part II, prop.
CXXXIX). This was a few years before Newton!
Checking the calculations of Borelli does not always yield his results (for
example in part II, proposition CXLVIII).

The Translation
I could not obtain the first edition of the work and translated the edition pub-
lished in 1743 by Peter Gosse in The Hague. This edition comprises addition-
ally two dissertations by J. Bernoulli which are quite distinct from the work of
Borelli. Their translation will be published separately. The division of the work
in short propositions provides continuous and easy reference to the original
text without the need of overloading the margins of the translation with indica-
tions of pages. I reproduced the references of Borelli as he did. At the end of
the book I listed the authors cited by Borelli and their main works, when I
could trace them. Some researchers may investigate the works thus mentioned
and complete the references in a modern way. I had neither the time nor the
means to do it. In translating I attempted to keep very close to the original text
and to convey the way of thinking of the author. This may sometimes make
some sentences look cumbersome or their meaning questionable. For instance,
when Borelli uses the word "moment of a force" he means either the magni-
tude of the force, or its moment in its modern sense (product of the force and
its lever arm), or the product of the force and the velocity of the object moved
by this force, or simply the importance of the force. I also used the chemical
designations of the time. For example, "spirit of vitriol" could have been trans-

VIII
lated as sulphuric acid. But the modern term would not have conveyed the
exact definition meant by the author. To compensate for this inconvenience a
glossary at the end of the present book explains the obsolete meaning of some
terms.
Despite its imperfections, may this translation stimulate more research and
discussion on the extraordinarily imaginative work of Borelli.

Aywaille, Christmas 1988 P. Maquet

IX
 Contents

Part I On the External Motions of Animals and the Involved Forces

To the august Queen Christina (Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, academician of

the Queen S and F) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Carlo Giovanni from the regular clerics of Jesus, general superior of the
arm and pious scholars of the Mother of God. Benevolent reader, greetings 3

Introduction 6

Chapter I Enumeration of what must be assumed in dealing with

movement of the animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter II Description and function of the muscle . . . . . . . . 8
Chapter III Magnitude of the vital motive power of the muscles
according to the ancients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter IV Theorems useful to show the hugeness of the motive power
of the muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 16
Chapter V Although contracted with a maximum effort by a determined
magnitude of motive power, a muscle sometimes may exert very little
or no force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter VI Mechanical lemmas useful to explain the power or the
moment of the muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter VII The tendons of the muscles must not be attached to the
extremities of the articulated bones but well on tuberosities in the
vicinity of the joint with their direction oblique to the longitudinal
axis of the bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 24
Chapter VIII On the motive power and on the moments of the flexor
muscles of the elbow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Chapter IX On the flexor muscles of the lower leg and their action
about the knee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter X On the double increase of the forces of the muscles flexing
the forearm and the lower leg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36

x
Chapter XI On the moment and apparent magnitude of the motive
power exerted by the extensor muscles of the lower leg . . . . " .. 42
Chapter XII On the greater increase of the force which, to carry the
same load with the same bones, is required from the muscles which
are involved in the operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter XIII Lemmas necessary to analyse the motive power of the
muscles the fibres of which are not parallel and pull obliquely . . 72
Chapter XIV On the muscles pulling obliquely, their varying structure
and their action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter XV Analysis of the forces exerted by the radial muscles
described so far . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Chapter XVI Lemmas of mechanics necessary for a more accurate
analysis of the motive force exerted by the muscles . . . . . . . 104
Chapter XVII More accurate analysis of the motive power of the
muscles described above . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Chapter XVIII On the stance of the animals 126
Chapter XIX On the walking of bipeds . . . 144
Chapter XX On the walking of quadrupeds 151
Chapter XXI On jumping 155
Chapter XXII On flying 162
Chapter XXIII On swimming 183

Part II On the Internal Motions of Animals and Their Immediate Causes

Carlo Giovanni of the regular clerics of Jesus, general superior of the pious
school of the Mother of God. Benevolent reader, greetings . . . . . . . . . 203

Chapter I On the mechanism of muscle contraction .205

Chapter II On the untrue causes of contraction of muscles given by
others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Chapter III On the likely causes of contraction of the muscles .. . 232
Chapter IV On internal movements in animals and first on blood
circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Chapter V On the heart and its pulsation . 248
Chapter VI On the causes of the movement of the heart . 281
Chapter VII On breathing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

XI
Chapter VII I On the primary function of respiration . 300
Chapter IX On cleaning of the blood in the kidneys . 340
Chapter X On the function of the liver . . . . . . . . . 354
Chapter XI On the flowing of spirituous substance through the nerves . 364
Chapter XII On semen, its genesis, movement and nature . . 375
Chapter XIII On the generation and development of plants . 383
Chapter XIV On animal generation . . . 393
Chapter XV On insensible perspiration . 400
Chapter XVI On nutrition of the animals . 401
Chapter XVII On hunger and thirst . 410
Chapter XVIII On pain. . 413
Chapter XIX On fatigue . 415
Chapter XX On convulsions . 420
Chapter XXI On shivering . 421
Chapter XXII On fevers . 425

References . 453
Glossary . . . 461
Name and Subject Index .. 465

XII