DUCTUS STENONIANI ETC.

STENO, NICOLAI (NIELS STEENSEN) (NILS STENSEN).

De Musculis et Glandulis Observationum Specimen. Cum Epistolis duabus Anatomicis. (And) Observationes Anatomicæ, quibus Varia Oris, Oculum, & Narium vasa describuntur, novique salivæ, lacrymarum & muci fontes deteguntur. Et Novum Nobilissimi Bilsii De lymphae motu & usu commentum Examinantur & rejicitur.

Lugd. Batav. (Leiden), 1683 & Lugd. Batav. (Leiden), 1683.

12mo. Bound in one cont. full vellum. Title in old hand on back. De Musculis: (4), 111 pp. and 1 folded engraved plate with 4 figs. - Observationes Anatomicæ: (12), 108 pp. and 3 folded engraved plates. Light scattered brownspots, but good copies.

Two very scarce works by Steensen describing his exceptional discoveries relating to the Ducts, the Glands and the mechanics of Muscles.
"De Musculis..." is the Leiden issue, the third publication and the second printed outside Denmark. The first edition was published in Copenhagen in 1664. The work, which is divided into two parts, contains Steensen's famous investigations on the anatomy and physiology of the different types of muscles, in which he classifies them according to fibres and fibre-functions, and concludes that the heart is a muscle with automatic movement, totally against classical and contemporary authorities. The second part deals with the Ducts and Glands giving a survey of his earlier findings, such as Stensen's Duct, which gave rise to the controversy about priority with Blasius. And then he published a long row of new discoveries on the lymphatic glands, in reality he here lists 11 new discoveries.
"In this work (De Musculis et Glandulis) Steno laid the foundation of our present conception of muscular mechanics. He "at once grasped the significance of the fibrillar structure of skeletal muscle and realised that the tensile forces developed in each individual fibra became summated into the response of the muscle as a whole" (Fulton). He proved the muscular nature of the heart." (Garrison & Morton).
"Observationes Anatomicæ" is the second printing, the first issued 1662, and it contains Stensen's famous findings from his first year in Leiden of the 3 main Ducts, among these the first account of the excretory duct of the parotid gland "STENSEN'S DUCT". The work is divided into 4 parts and describes the findings of the ducts and glands of the eye, the mouth and the nose.
Waller Nos 9219 & 9227 - Osler Nos 4020 & 4018 (1662 ed.) - Gosch III: Stensen 4:2 & 2:1 - Garrison & Morton Nos 576 (1664) & 973 (1662).

Order-nr.: 32267