Swammerdam in the book of nature demonstrated that a muscle with an attached nerve continues to contract after separation from the body. It ruled out that the brain ventricles are the source of animal spirit. Additionally, he proved that the muscle would contract even if the fibers are severed by small cuts. He stated that the muscle would move again even after it has been cut and the moving fiber separated when the nerve that belongs to them is irritated. He also experimented using a frog leg, a piston, an attached brass wire and a pipette. The results were inconsistent with Descartes theory that muscles are inflated by the animal spirit. He, therefore, concluded that there is no sensible or comprehensive flow through the nerve to the muscles.
Unzer believed that the brain activity determines the conscious experience of pain. According to him, reflexes in decapitated and intact individuals are identical. To him, if an impression traveling towards the brain does not reach its destination, as a result of decapitation, it may turn back and follow an efferent path leading to the same motion as if the animal is intact. Accordingly, the reflexes are unconscious and therefore produce no pain.
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Helmholtz invented a myograph which included a rolling chart recorder which could register the actions of a stimulus and response moving at a known rate. He recorded the time lag between nerve stimulation and the contraction of the muscle. He stimulated the nerve at a further and close distance from the tissue. The difference between contraction time between the two points divided by the distance resulted in a measure of velocity. The times ranged from fifty to one hundred meters in a second.
Spinoza denied the existence of intermediate forces between God and nature. To him, God occupies all points in the space, and at every time therefore only God's power can be at work. He viewed the beliefs in demons as nonsense. Descartes emphasized on the relationship between the soul's activities presumably situated at the pineal gland and the interaction of the soul with other body parts. His beliefs on the relationship between the activities of the brain and psychological processes eliminate any other space for other agencies like demons.
Rush believed in a theocentric universe and the doctrine of original sin. He thought that mental disorders originate from blood vessels in the brain and any disturbance in circulation causes all diseases including mental problems. According to Pinel, the environment and lifestyle of an individual play a crucial role in the development of mental illnesses.
