ON THE MOVEMENT OF ANIMALS

BY GIOVANNI ALFONSO BORELLI

I undertake the arduous Physiology of the movements of Animals, which, although attempted by many of the ancients and moderns, no one, so far as I know, has touched upon, or even sensed the countless problems—excellent and pleasant to know—which can be proposed and discussed therein, nor has anyone been able, or cared, to confirm them with mechanical demonstrations.

I have therefore taken this task upon myself, so that this part of Physics, adorned and enriched by Mathematical demonstrations, might be enumerated among the Physico-Mathematical disciplines, no less than Astronomy. And if my efforts have not been entirely in vain, at least others, more sagacious and learned, stimulated by me, will be able to perfect and enrich this Science with more solid reasoning and a better method.

Now, to intimate something about the work and its partition: after the books on the force of percussion and on Natural movements depending on gravity, which have already been published and should have preceded this, there follows the main work on the movements of Animals. It adduces the causes and modes by which the aforesaid motions can occur, showing the degrees and proportions of the moving faculties, the mechanical organs by which those movements are accomplished, and the contrivances and reasons for which they were ordained by most wise nature.

The treatise will subsequently be divided into two parts; in the first, we shall copy- sè