694867 Frontispiece of Descartes\' Treatise on Man and on the Formation of the Foetus, published in Paris, 1674 (woodcut) by French School, (17th century); Bibliotheque de la Faculte de Medecine, Paris, France; (add.info.: \'L\'Homme de Rene Descartes\'; French Translation of \'Tractatus de Homine et de Formatione Foetus\', published in Amsterdam by Elzevier in 1677; This treatise by Ren矇 Descartes (1596-1650) was one of the earliest Western attempts to offer an explanation of human physiology; one of the main explanations of the workings of the body centered on the pineal gland, which was held to control human nervous functions and to be the "seat of the soul\'\';).