Nervous system in the fibrillar theory of Giorgio Baglivi.

The drafts, epistles, headwords, and conceptual basis known as the fibrillar theory of Giorgio Baglivi, published in his book entitled De fibra motrice et morbosa, were analyzed in an attempt to re-evaluate Baglivi's contribution, generally considered quite modest, to the development of scientific thought on the nervous system functions. The analysis revealed Baglivi's identification of the reflex organization, vegetative nervous system function, and neural aspect of the vasomotor function to be surprisingly valuable. I believe that the lucidity and genuine contemporariness of Baglivi's standpoints arise the question of the historical precedence in the discovery of these functions (it is usually attributed to F.X. Bichat for vegetative nervous system, and to Claude Bernard for vasomotor nerves). In the light of these facts, the need of an expert revision of the history of discovering nervous system functions is suggested.