First published in 1901, this volume contains ten lectures originally delivered as the 'Lane Lectures' by Sir Michael Foster at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco. Examining the history of physiology from about the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, the lectures consider the work and influence of key figures such as Vesalius, Harvey and Borelli, and chart the progress of scientific thought on matters such as digestion, respiration and the nervous system.