Iatromechanics was an empirical and experimental concept of pathological teaching, considered innovative in the 18th century. The Iatromechanicers described the human body as a machine which could be analysed using mathematics and physics. At the bedside, they noted the symptoms and considered, if relevant, external evidence as shown by urine and blood, then explained them using mechanical laws. In addition, the patient’s medical history was taken into account. For the medical diagnosis, the Iatromechanicers looked for faults in the structure or function of the body apparatus.
The Iatromechanical model was built by Dutch Physician Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738), a pioneering scholar dubbed ‘the father of physiology’ and ‘Dutch Hippocrates’. He introduced the quantitative approach to medicine and focused medical attention on material fact as opposed to esoteric or philosophical explanations of illness. Among his students in the 1720s was young Gerhard van Swieten. When resettled in Vienna at the invitation of the Empress in 1745, he promoted and applied many of Boerhaave’s progressive ideas, for example, keeping patients’ medical records or putting the thermometer measurement into clinical practice.
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