17th. century, mechanical principles

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What are some of the things that happened in the 17th. century that led people to start applying mechanical principles to humans?

-- Edward W. Sinclair (Harrissrj@msn.com), September 08, 2003

Answers

Well, among other things Descartes famously saw the hydraulic automatons that once ran around the garden at Versailles, and then built a model of bodily function based on that model. (Actually, Descartes seems to have "borrowed" it from Galen -- see _On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body_, Book XIV.)

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), September 08, 2003.

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