iatrophysics

thumb|A page from Giovanni Borelli's De Motu Animalium, showing how various simple machines can be used to model different limbs

Iatrophysics or iatromechanics (fr. Greek) is the medical application of physics. It provides an explanation for medical practices with mechanical principles. It was a school of medicine in the seventeenth century which attempted to explain physiological phenomena in mechanical terms. Believers of iatromechanics thought that physiological phenomena of the human body followed the laws of physics. It was related to iatrochemistry in studying the human body in a systematic manner based on observations from the natural world though it had more emphasis on mathematical models rather than chemical processes.