[Odontology and the beginning of cartesianism (1673--1650) (Rene Descartes)].

In the seventeenth century the universities of the Netherlands underwent the influence of Descartes in all the faculties. In medicine three periods can be distinguished: in the first, pathology and therapy are still galenic; the second, by the application of the cartesian method, triumphs in physiology; and the third, corrected by the views of Newton is integrated in a moderate biomechanism.