Abstract
A FAMILIARITY with the structure of the human body is but rarely combined with a competent knowledge of mathematics. So far as one may judge from published works, Prof. Otto Fischer is the sole representative of this combination of talents in Europe. But his attainments, from their very singularity, carry with them certain disadvantages; although he has diligently applied the methods of the mathematician to the elucidation of the movements of the human body for the last twenty years, he has raised neither rival, disciple, nor critic; his many publications have failed, apparently, to attract the attention of writers of text-books on anatomy and physiology. Prof. Fischer expresses the hope that his book will appeal to mathematicians and physicists on the one hand, and to anatomists and physiologists on The other; he has employed the most intelligible anatomical terms and descriptions for the benefit of the first, and reduced the necessary mathematical formuke to their simplest expression for the second. Notwithstanding these attempts to form a common ground where mathematicians and anatomists may meet on equal terms, the writer of this notice finds the mathematics of this work difficult and wholly to be taken on trust, and he believes the vast majority of anatomists will experience a similar difficulty. Nor does he believe that the pure mathematician will easily understand the action of such muscles as the “iliacus,” “short head of the biceps,” or “semi-membranosus,” nor have a definite conception when he is told that the centre of gravity for the head lies between the “dorsum sellæ” and “posterior perforated lamina.”
Theoretische Grundlagen für eine Mechanik der lebender Körper.
By Otto Fischer. Pp. x + 372. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1906.) Price 14 marks.
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Theoretische Grundlagen für eine Mechanik der lebender Körper . Nature 75, 146 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/075146a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/075146a0