Download or read book The Animal Spirit Doctrine and the Origins of Neurophysiology written by C.U.M. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the history of Western attempts to explain how messages might be sent from the sense organs to the brain and from the brain to the muscles. It focuses on a construct called animal spirit, which would permeate philosophy and guide physiology and medicine for over two millennia.