Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: iatrophysical school

  • Measure of the heart: Santorio Santorio and the pulsilogium

    Richard de GrijsDaniel VuillerminBeijing, China The heart is a musical organ. The irregularity of one’s inhalation and exhalation of air defies musicality, while the involuntary rumbling of moving gas in the intestines is embarrassingly analogous to the timbre of the tuba or trombone. Biomedical terminology and poetry are seemingly antithetical, but of the heart they…