as well that which is in the greater veins and their branches and fibers as that in the porosities of the parts in any region of the body does flow to the heart flow from the heart without interruption incessantly and never continues in one place without damage though I do not say but in some places it moves flower in some faster First then the most learned man denyes only that the blood contain'd in the Porta does circulate which he could neither have denied nor disapproved of if he had not pass'd over the force of his own argument for he sayes lib. 3. cap. 8. If in every pulsation the heart receive one drop of blood which it expels into the aorta and does make two thousand pulsations in an hour there must needs a great deal of blood passe through He is likewise forc'd to affirm the same of the mesenterie since through the caliacal arterie and the mesenterial arteries there is thrust in more than one drop of blood at every pulsation and is forc'd against the mesenterie and its veins insomuch that it must either go out according to the just proportion of that which enters otherwise the branches of the Porta would burst at last nor can it for the resolution of this doubt be probably said or possibly be that the blood of the mesenteric should vainly and to no purpose ebb and flow through these arteries like an Euripus nor the relapse from the mesenteric by those passages and transplantation by which he would have the mesenteric disgorge it self into the aorta likely to be true nor can it prevail against that which is entring by contrary motion nor can there be any vicissitude where it is most certain that without interruption and incessantly there is an influx but is compell'd by the same necessity by which it is certain that the heart doth thrust forth the blood against the mensenteriū Which is most manifest for otherwise by the same argument they would overthrow all Circulation of the blood if thus he should with the same likelihood of truth affirm that too in the ventricles of the heart namely in the Systole of the heart the blood is driven into the aorta and in the Diastole returns and the aorta disburthens it self into the ventricles of the heart as the ventricles again into the aorta and so neither in the heart nor in the mesenterie should there be any circulation but a flux and reflux by turns is turned up and down with needlesse labour Therefore if of necessity in the heart is proved the circulation of the blood for the reason aforesaid prov'd by himself the same force of argument takes place likewise in the mesenterie but if there be no circulation in the mesenterie neither is there in the heart for both these assertions namely this of the heart that of the mesenterie hangs upon the force of the same argument onely changing the words and is establish'd and falls in like manner He sayes that the Sigma-like portals do hinder the regresse of the blood in the heart but there are no portals in the mesenterie I answer neither is this true for in the splenick branch as likewise sometimes in others there are found portals Besides portals are not all times requisite in the more profound veins nor are they found in the deep veins of the joints but rather in the skin veins for where the blood flowing out of the lesse branches is prone naturally to come into the greater by the compression of the muscles about it it is sufficiently hinder'd from return but where the passage being open it is forc'd What need is there there of portals But how much blood at every pulsation is forc'd into the mesenterie is reckoned according to the same account as if with an indifferent ligature you should in the carpus bind the veins comming out of the hand and entring into the arteries for the arteries of the mesenterie are greater than those of the carpus if you tell at how many pulsations the vessel and your whole hand swell to their greatest biguesse dividing and making a subduction you shall find much more than one drop of blood come in at every pulsation notwithstanding the ligature nor can it return but rather that in filling the hand it forcibly distends and swels it we may by calculation gather that the blood enters the mesenteric in the same quantity if not in a greater by how much the arteries of the mesenteric are greater than those of the carpus And if any should but see and think with himself with what difficultie and pains compressions ligatures and severall means the blood is staid that leaps forcibly out of the least arterie which is cut or broken with what strength as if it were shot out of a spout it throws off and drives away or passes through all the bindings I think he would scarce beleeve that any part of blood which only enters could against this impulsion and influx passe back again being not able to drive it back with force For which cause considering these things with himself I beleeve it would not ever enter his mind to imagin that the blood out of the veins of the porta could creep back by these same wayes and so disburthen it self into the Mesenterie against so forcible and strong an influx into the arteries Moreover if the most learned man beleeve not that the blood is mov'd and chang'd by circular motion but being still the same it stands and mantles in the branches of the mesenterie he seems to suppose that there is a two-fold blood divers and serving to divers uses and ends and therefore it is of divers natures in the vena porta and cava because one of them for its preservation needs circulation the other needs not which neither does it appear nor does he demonstrate it to be true Besides the most learned man addes in his Enchirid. lib. 2. cap. 18. A fourth sort of vessels to the Mesenterie which are called the Venae Lacteae invented by Asselius which being set down he seems to infer that all the nutriment being drawn through them is carried to the liver the forge of blood which being there concocted and changed into blood he says in lib. 3. cap. 8. it is carried to the left ventricle of the heart which being granted sayes he all the scruples which were antiently motion'd concerning the distribution of the Chylus and of the blood through the same conduit do cease for the Venae Lacteae carry the Chylus to the Liver and therefore these conduits are apart and can be obstructed apart But indeed I would fain know how this can be demonstrated to be true If this milk be transfus'd and passe into the liver how shall it get thence through the cava into the ventricle of the heart Since the most learned man denyes that the blood contained in the numerous branches of the porta and the liver can passe that so circulation may be made
the blood be again returned to that place where it first began that is to say to the right ear These things you may try at your pleasure cutting up one of the longer arteries as the jugular which if you take betwixt your fingers you shall clearly discern how it loses its pulse and recovers it again beats lesse or more And as these things may be tryed whilst the brest is whole so opening the brest and the lungs afterwards being collaps'd and all motion of respiration gone you may easily try it to wit that the left ear is contracted and emptyed that it becomes more whitish and that it doth at last together with the left ventricle intermit in its pulse beat leisurely and at last leave off And likewise by the hole which you may cut in the arterie you may see the blood come forth lesse and lesse in a smaller thred and that at last to wit in the defect of blood and the impulsion of the left ventricle no more will flow You may likewise try this same in the tying of the vena arteriosa and so take away the pulse of the left ear and with untying it restore the pulse at your pleasure Whence the same thing is evidently try'd by experiment which is seen in dying persons that as first the left ventricle desists from motion and pulse and afterwards the left ear then the right ventricle pulse lastly the right ear so where the vital faculty begins first it ends last Which being tried by the sense it is manisest that the blood passes only through the semptum of the heart and not through the lungs and only through them whilst they are mov'd in respiration and not when they are fallen or disquieted For which cause in an Embryon not as yet breathing Nature instead of the passage in the arteria venosa that matter may be furnish'd to the left ventricle and the left ear opens an oval hole which she shuts in young men and those that breath freely It likewise appears why those that have the vessels of their lungs oppress'd and stuff'd or those that have any losse of their breath it is present token of death It is likewise clear why the blood of the lungs is so flame-colour'd for it is thinnest that is straind through there It is beside to be observ'd from our former conclusion in order to those who require the causes of Circulation think the power of the heart to be the effecter of all things and as it is the author of transmission by pulse so with Aristotle they think it the author of attraction and generation of blood and that the Spirits are made by the heart and the influxive heat that by the innat heat of the heart as by the immediat instrument of the soul or by a common bond and the first organ for perfecting of all the works of life And so the motion of the blood and spirit its perfection and heat and every property thereof to be borrow'd from the heart as from its beginning which Arist. says is in in the blood as in hot water or boyling pottage is in the heart and that it is the first cause of pulsation and life If I may speak freely I do not think that these things are so as they are commonly believed for there are many things which perswade me to that opinion which I will take notice of in the generation of creatures which are not fit here to be rehersed but it may be things more wonderful than these and such as will give more light to natural Philosophie shall be publish'd by me Yet in the mean time I will say and propound it without demonstration with the leave of most learned men and reverence to antiquity that the heart as it is the beginning of all things in the body the spring fountain and first causer of life is so to be taken as being joynd together with the veins and all arteries and the blood which is containd in thē Like as the brain together with all its sensible nervs organs and spinal marrow is the adequate organ of the sense as the phrase is But if you understand by this word heart the body of the heart with the ventricles and ears I do not think it to be the framer of the blood and that it has not force vertue motion or heat as the gift of the heart and next that the same is not the cause of the Diastole distention which is the cause of the Systole and contraction whether in the ears or arteries but that part of the pulse which is call'd a Diastole comes of another cause diverse from the Systole and ought to go before every Systole I think the first cause of distention is innate heat in the blood it self which like leaven by little and little attenuated and swelling is the last thing that is extinct in the creature I agree to Aristotles instance of pottage or milk in so far as he thinks that elevation or depression of the blood does not come of vapours or exhalations or Spirits rais'd into a vaporous or eareal form nor is not caus'd by any external agent but by the regulating of Nature an internal principle Nor is the heart as some think like a charcoal-fire like a hot Kettle the beginning of heat and blood but rather the blood delivers that heat which it has receiv'd to the heart as likewise to all the rest of the parts as being the hottest of all Therefore arteries and the coronal veins are assign'd to the heart for that use which they are assign'd to the rest of the parts to wit for influx of heat for the entertaining and conservation of it therefore all the hotter parts how much more sanguine they are and more abundant with blood they are said convertibly so to be and thus the heart having signall concavities is to be thought the Ware-house continuall fire and fountain of the blood not because of the corpulency of it but because of the blood which it contains like a hot Kettle as in the same manner the spleen lungs an other parts are thought hot because they have many veins or vessels containing blood And after this manner do I believe that the native heat call'd innate to be the first efficient cause of pulse as likewise to be the common instrument of all operations This as yet I do not constantly aver but propound it as a Thesis I would fain know what may be objected by good and learned men without scurrilitie of words reproaches or base language and any body shall be welcome to do it These things then are as it were the parts and the footsteps of the passage and Circulation of the blood to wit from the right ear into the ventricle out of the ventricle through the lungs into the left ear then into the left ventricle into the aorta and into all the arteries from the heart by the porosities of the part into the veins and by the veins
fellon which does not feel the pricking motion of the beating of the arterie and its endeavour to dissolve the continuum But further it is manifest that the blood does make a regresse in the pores of the parts in the skin of the hands and feet for sometimes in great frost and cold seasons we see the hands and joints especially of boys so cold that at the very touch they do almost resemble the coldnesse of Ice and are so benummed and stiff that there is scarce any life in them nor motion and yet in the mean time they are full of blood seeming red or blew which parts can again by no means be warm'd unlesse by Circulation that refrigerate blood be thrust out and in its place new warm and spirituous blood flowing in do foment and re-warm the parts and restore to them motion and sense for they should never be renew'd or restor'd by external heat no more than the members of dead persons unless some internal influent warmth did refresh them This indeed is the chief use end of the Circulation of the blood for which cause the blood by its continual course and perpetual influence is driven about namely that all the parts depending upon it by their first innate warm moisture might be retain'd in life and in their own vital and vegetative essence and perform all their functions whilst as the Naturallists say they are sustain'd and actuated by natural heat and vital spirits so by the help of two extremities heat and cold the temper of the bodies of creatures is kept in its mediocrity for as the breathing in of air does temper the too much heat of the blood in the lungs and in the centre of the body and causes the eventilation of suffocating fumes so also the blood being hot and cast out through the arteries into the whole body does foment and nourish the extremities in living creatures and hinders them to be extinguish'd by the force of outward cold Therefore it were injust and wonderfull if every little part of what region soever should not enjoy the benefit of the transmutation and circulation of the blood for whose sake Circulation seems chiefly to be appointed by Nature Therefore that I may conclude for you see how the Circulation of the blood is perform'd without perturbation or confusion of the humors in all the body and in every part both in the greater and in the lesser vessels and that by necessity and for the benefit of all the parts without which being cold and impotent they could never be restor'd or remain alive It is enough because its clear that all influence of preservative heat does come through the arteries and is done by circulation For which cause most learned Riolan seems to me when he sayes that in some parts there is no Circulation to speak rather officiously than truth to wit that he might please most men and oppose no body and that he rather wrote humanely than gravely in the behalf of the truth As he likewise seems to do lib. 3. cap 8. when he would rather have the blood to come into the left ventricle through the septum of the heart through uncertain and hidden passages than through the large and most open vessels of the lungs being made with Portals artificially to hinder its return I desire to see the reason of the impossibility and inconvenience which he says he propounded elsewhere It is a wonder since the Aorta and vena Arteriosa are of the same bignesse constitution and frame that their function should not be the same But that is very improbable that the great River of the whole masse of blood should in so great abundance go into the left ventricle by so blind and small a winding of the septum which should answer both to the entrie from the vena cava in the right side of the heart and also its egresse from the left which do both require such wide orifices But he has likewise produc'd these things staggeringly for in lib. 3. ca 6. he ordains the lungs as a sink or passage from the heart and he says The lungs are affected by that blood which passes through whilst its filth flowes together with that blood so he sayes likewise That the lungs acquire corruption by distemper'd and ill-condition'dintralls which furnish the heart with impure blood whose fault the heart cannot help but by many circulations He likewise in the same place concerning letting of blood and shortnesse of breath communication of the veins with the vessels of the lungs says against Galen If it be rue that the blood does naturally passe from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs that it may be carryed to the left ventricle and so to the aorta and if the Circulation of the blood be admitted who sees not in the diseases of the lungs that the blood flows thither in greater abundance and oppresses the lungs unlesse they be first largely emptied every part taking a share to case them which was Hippocrates advice from all parts of the body head nose tongue arms feet to take away the blood that the quantity of it might be impaired and that it might be revulsed from the lungs and so draws out the blood till the body was quite without blood He says likewise The Circulation being suppos'd the lungs are easily emptied by breathing a vein If this counsel be rejected I see not how it can be revuls'd from thence for if it flow back through the vena arteriosa into the right ventricle the Sigmoidal portals hinder it and the three-pointed portals hinder the regress out of the right ventricle into the vena cava Therfore by Circulation the bload will be exhausted by cutting the veins of the arms and feet And likewise Pernelius his opinion in the affections of the lungs is destroy'd that blood is rather to be taken out of the right arm than out of the left for the blood cannot return into the vena cava unlesse it break through two gates and bars which are placed in the heart He addes moreover in the same place lib. 3. cap. 6. If the Circulation of the blood be admitted and that it doth pass often through the lungs and not through the middle of the Septum of the heart there is a two-fold Circulation of the blood to be assigned one of which is perfected by the heart and the lungs whilst the blood leaping out from the right ventricle of the heart is carried through the lungs that it may come to the left ventricle of the heart for leaping out from the same inward part it returns to it then by another larger circulation flowing out of the left ventricle of the bea rt it goes about the whole body and runs through the arteries and veins to the right ventricle of the heart The most learned man in this place might have added the third circulation which is a very short one out of the left ventricle into the right drawing about a
body through the arteries sense may likewise make evident You may observe when and as often as the extremities of the hands the feet and the ears are stiff and cold and are restor'd again by the influx of heat that it happens that at the self-fame time they are colour'd warm'd and fill'd and that the veins which were unseen before doe swell to plain appearance from whence sometimes when they are suddenly warm'd again the parts are sensible of some pain from which it appeats that the same which by its influx brings heat the same is it that fills and colours them but this can be nothing else but blood as was demonstrated before Cutting off a long arterie or vein any body may see this evidently by sense when he shall see the nearer part of the vein towards the heart let out no blood but the further part pour it abundantly and nothing but blood as afterwards in my experiment which I set down which I tryed in the inner jugularie veins On the other side cutting an arterie but a little blood flows from the further part but the nearer part shoots with a violent force mere blood as if it were out of a spout By which experiment it is known which way the passage is in them either this way or that way Besides you 'l know what swiftnesse there is in it what sensible motion not by little and by drops and with what violence to boot But lest any would make an evasion by pretending of invisible Spirits Let the orifice of the vessel so dissected be let down into a vessel of water or oyl for if any herial thing came out it would break out by visible bubbles for after this manner Wasps Hornets and the like Insects being drown'd or suffocate in oyl send out at last bubbles from their tail when they are dying from whence it is not improbable that they do take breath too whilst they are alive For all creatures at last when they are drown'd and stiffled in the water when they fail and sink they use to send out bubbles out of their mouth and lungs when they give up the glost Lastly it is assur'd by the same experiment That the portals in the veins are so exactly shut that air when it is blown in cannot passe much lesse blood I say it appears to the sense that neither sensibly nor insensibly neither by little nor by drops the blood is remoy'd from the heart by the veins And lest any should flye hither and say thus That this comes to passe when Nature is troubled and does act besides Nature not when she is left to her self and acts at her own freedom seeing the same things appeare in a sickly and preternatural constitution which appear in good estate of bodie it is not to be said that cutting off a vein since there flowes so much blood from the further part that this comes to passe beside Nature because Nature is molested for the dissection does not shut the further part so that nothing can get out that way nor can it be squeez'd out whether Nature be troubled or no Others doe wrangle after the same manner saying That although when the arterie is cut near the heart the blood breaks out in so great abundance immediatly yet for that cause the heart being whole and the arterie too it does not alwayes drive the blood by impulsion Yet it is more likely that all impulsion does drive something nor can there be a pulse of the container without the impulsion of something contained Yet some that they might desend themselves and decline the Circulation of the blood are not afraid to affirm and maintain this to wit that the arteries in living creatures and being according to Nature are so full that they cannot receive a grain weight more of blood and so likewise of the ventrieles of the heart But it is without doubt whensoever or how much soever the arteries and ventricles are dilated and contracted they ought to receive greater impulsion of blood and that beyond many grains For if the ventricles be so distended as we have seen in the Anatomie of living Creatures till they receive no more blood the heart leavs beating and continuing stiff and resisting it occasions death by suffocation Whether the blood be mov'd or driven or move it self by its own intrinsecall nature we have spoken sufficiently in our book of the motion of the heart and blood as also concerning the action function contraction dilatation of the heart how it is done and together with the Dinstale of the arteries so that those which take arguments from thence for contradiction seem either not to understand what is said there or else they will not try the businesse by their own sight I believe there can not the attraction of any thing be demostrated in the body but of the nutriment which by succession of parts supplies by little little that which is lost as the oyl of a lamp by the flame Whence that is the first comon organ of all sensible attraction impulsion which has the nature of a nerve or of a fiber or of a muscle to wit that it may be contracted and that by shortning of it self it may stretch 〈◊〉 draw in or thrust forward but these things are more fully and openly to be declared elsewhere in the organs of motion in living creatures Insomuch as to those who do still reject the Circulation because they neither see the efficient nor finall cause of it There remains because I have as yet joyn'd nothing to it only to say thus much First you must confesse that there is a Circulation before you enquire for what it is for from those things that doe happen upon the circulation and allowance of it the use and profits accrewing are to be searched In the mean time I shall say so much that there are many things allowed received in Physiologie Pathologie and Medicine that no body knows the cause of yet that there are such things no body is ignorant namely of rotten feavers revulsion purgation of excrement yet all these things are known by the help of Circulation Whosoever therefore does oppose the Circulation of the blood because so long as the Circulation stands they cannot resolve Physicall Problems or because in curing of diseases and using of medicaments they cannot from thence assign any cause of the Symptomes or see that those causes which from their Masters they have receiv'd are false or think it an unworthy thing to desert opinions approved heretofore and think in unlawfull to call in question the discipline which has been receiv'd through so many ages together with the authority of the Antients To all these I answer that the deeds of nature which are manifest to the sense care not for any opinion or any antiquity for there is nothing more antient than nature or of greater authority Besides those Problemes out of Medicinall observations not to be solv'd as the Imagine to the Circulation they object
TWO ANATOMICAL EXERCITATIONS Concerning The Circulation of the Blood To John Riolan the Son the most experienced Physician in the Universitie of Paris the Prince of Dissectors of Bodies and the Kings Professors and Dean of Anatomie and the knowledge of Simples Chief Physician to the Queen-Mother of Lewis XIII The Author WILLIAM HARVEY an Englishman Professor of Anatomie and Chirurgerie in the College of Physicians at LONDON and Doctor of Physick to the Kings most Excellent Majestie London Printed by Francis Leach 1653. The First ANATOMICAL EXERCITATION Concerning The Circulation of the Blood To JOHN RIOLAN THere did come forth not many moneths agoe a little piece of the most famous Riolan's concerning Anatomie and Diseases for which as being sent to me by the Author himself I return hearty thanks Seriously I do congratulate the felicity of that man in undertaking a thing very commendable To open to the view the seats of all Diseases is a work not to be atchiev'd but by a divine wit Truly he undertook a hard task that has set those Diseases which are almost obscure to our understanding before our eyes Such endeavours become the Prince of Anatomists for there is no Science which has not its beginning from foregoing knowledge nor any knowledge which is not beholding to sense for its original For which cause the business it self and the example of so worthy a person requir'd my pains and did invite me in like manner to put forth and joyn my medicinal Anatomic being chiefly fitted for Physical uses not with the same intention as he by demonstrating the places of diseases from the dead bodies of healthful men and rehearsing the divers sorts of diseases incident to those places according to other mens opinions which he ought to have seen there but that I might undertake to relate from the many dissections of sick bodies and the most grievous and wonderfull diseases of dead persons in what manner and how the inward parts of them are chang'd in place bignesse condition figure substance and other sensible accidents from their natural form and appearance which all Anatomists commonly describ'd and how diversly and wonderfully they are affected For as the dissection of healthfull and well habited bodies conduces much to Philosophie and right Physiologie so the inspection of diseased bodies conduces chiefly to Pathological Philosophie For the Physiological contemplation of those things which are according to Nature is first to be known by the Physician for that which is according to Nature is right and is rule both to it self and that which is amisse by the light of which errors and preternatural diseases being defin'd Pathologie is more clear and from Pathologie the use and art of administring Physick and occasions of inventing many new remedies doe ocur Nor will any man beleeve how much in diseases especially such as are Chronical the inwards are chang'd and what monstrous shapes of the inward parts are begotten by diseases And I dare say the opening and dissection of one consumptive person or of a body spent with some antient or venemous disease has more enrich'd the knowledge of Physick than the dissections of ten bodies of men that have been hang'd Yet doe not I disallow of the most famous and most learned Anatomist Riolan his purpose but think it highly to be commended as being very profitable for Physick that he does illustrate the Physiological part yet did I think that it would not be lesse profitable to the art of Physick if I should set clearly before your eys to be seen not only the places but likewise the diseases of those places and rehearse them after I had well view'd and observ'd them and from my many dissections declare my experience But such things in that Book concerning the Circulation of the blood found out by me which are translated and seem to reflect onely upon me must first and chiefly be taken into consideration by me For so great a mans judgement concerning such a weighty businesse is not to be set at nought who is undoubtedly thought the chief and ringleader of all Anatomists of this age but the opinion of him alone is more to be weigh'd for commendation than the verdicts of all others which shall either applaud or contradict me and his censure more to be weigh'd and look'd upon He then in his lib. 3. cap. 8. Enchir. acknowledges our motion of the blood in Animals and takes part with us and is of our opinion as concerning the circulation of the blood yet not altogether and openly for he says lib. 2. cap. 21. That the blood in the port vein contained admits no circulation as the blood in the vena cava and in lib. 3. cap. 8. That there is blood which is circulated and circulatory vessels to wit the aorta and the vena cava yet he denies that the branches of them have any circulation Because says he the blood running out into all the parts of the second and third region stayes there for nutrition nor does it flow back to the greater vessels but being pluck'd back by force when the greater vessels are in great want of blood or when it returns with a sudden force or exstimulation to the greater circulatory vessels And so a little after Whether or no the blood of the veins does perpetually or naturally ascend or whether it returns to the Heart or Whether the blood of the Arteries do descend or go from the Heart yet if the lesser veins of the arms and leggs be empty the blood of the veins in succession filling the empty places may descend which sayes he I have clearly demonstrated against Harvey and Wallaeus And because daily experience and the authority of Galen does comfirm the Anastomosis of the veins arteries the necessity of the Circulation of the blood You see sayes he how the circulation of the blood coms about without the confusion of humors or the perturbation of antient medicine By which words it is known for what cause the most famous man would partly acknowledge partly deny the Circulation of the blood and why he endeavours to build a reeling and tottering opinion of Circulation Lest forsooth he should destroy the antient Physick and not mov'd by truth which he could not chuse but see but rather for fear he should violate the antient rules of Physick or perchance lest he ssould seem to resume or retract that Physiologie which in his Anthropologia he had publish'd before For the Circulation of the Blood does not destroy the antient Physick but furthers it rather it show the Physiologie of Physicians and the speculation of natural things and disallows the Anatomical doctrine of the use and action of the heart lungs and the rest of the intrals and that these things are so will appear partly out of his own words partly out of those things which I shall here set down namely that the whole blood in whatsoever part of the body living it be does move and shift place
like to honey or milk upon the fire and so taking up more room For if the blood which is driven out of the left ventricle into the arteries should be leaven'd so as to be blown up and foam after that manner so that a drop or two should fill all the concavity of the aorta no doubt it would when it fell again return to the quantity of some few drops which cause some do allege for the emptiness of the arteries in dead men and the same would be seen in the cotyla full of arterial blood for so we find that it comes to passe in the cooling of milk or honey But if in either cotyla the blood be found of the same colour and congealed of a not much different consistence and squeezing out the whey after the same manner and if it take up the same room both when it is hot and when it is cold I think it will be a sufficient argument to gain any mans beleef and to confute the dreams of some that there is neither in the left ventricle and sort of blood differing from that of the right as you may find out both by sense and reason for you must needs likewise affirm that the vena arteriosa should equally be distended with one drop of blood foaming up and therefore that there is just such bubbling and leaven'd blood in the right as in the left seeing the entry of the vena arteriosa and the egresse of the aorta is equipollent and equall Three things are chiefly ready to breed this opinion of the diversity of blood One is that in the cutting of an arterie they see brighter blood drawn out Another is that in the dissection of dead bodies they find both the left ventricle of the heart and all the arteries so empty A third is that they imagine that the arterial blood is more spirituous and more replete with Spirits and therefore they think that it takes up more room The cause and reason of all which things why they come to be so by inspection is perceiv'd First insomuch as concerns the colour alwayes and every where blood comming through a narrow hole is as as it were strained and becomes thinner and the lighter part of it and which swims above and is more penetrable is thrust out so in Phlebotomie the blood which springs out with great flux or force and out of a greater orifice and flies further is alwayes thicker fuller and darker colour'd but if it flow drops as it does out of a vein when the ligature is unty'd it is brighter for it is straind as it were and only the thinner part comes out as in the bleeding at nose or that which is extracted by Leeches or Cupping-glasses or any way issuing by diapedesin is always seen more bright because the thicknesse and hardnesse of the tunicles becomes more impassible nor yeelds so pliably as to give an open way for the comming out of the blood As it likewise happens in fat bodies when by the fat under the skin the orifice of the vein is stop'd then the blood appears thinner brighter and as if it did flow from an arterie On the contrary if you receive in a sawcer the blood when you have cut an arterie if it flow freely it shall appear like venal blood there is blood much brighter in the lungs and squeez'd out from thence than any is found in the arteries The emptinesse of the arteries in dead bodies which did perchance cozen Erasistrasus insomuch that he thought that the arteries containd only aerial spirits proceeds from hence because that when the lungs fall their passages being stopt the lungs do breath no longer so that the blood cannot freely passe through them yet the heart continues a while in its expulsion whence both the left ventricle of the heart is more contracted and the arteries likewise empty and not fill'd by succession of blood appear empty But if the heart cease both at one time and the lungs to give passage by respiration as it is in those who are drowned in cold water or in those who are taken suddenly with unexpected death you shall find both the veins and the arteries full As concerning the third of the Spirits what they are and of what consistence and how they are in the body whether they be apart and distinct from the solid parts or mix'd with them there are so many and so divers opinions that it is no wonder if Spirits whose nature is left so doubtfull do serve for a common escape to ignorance For commonly ignorant persons when they cannot give a reason for any thing they say presently that it is done by Spirits and bring in Spirits as performers in all cases and like as bad Poets doe bring in the gods upon the Scene by head and ears to make the Exit and Catastrophe of their play Fernelius and others do imagine aerial Spirits and invisible substances for he proves that there are animal Spirit just as Erasistratus proves them in the arteries because there are little cells in the brains which are empty and since there is no vacuum he concludes that in living men they are full of Spirits Yet all the School of Physicians agrees upon three sorts of Spirits that the natural Spirits flow through the veins the vital through the arteries and the animal through the nerves whence the Physicians say out of Galen that the parts sometimes want the cōsent of the brain because the faculty together with its essence is sometimes hinder'd and sometime without the essence Over and above besides these three sorts of influxive spirtis they seem to assert so many more which are implanted But none of all these have we found by dissection neither in the veins nerves arteries nor parts of living persons Some make corporeal Spirits other some incorporeal Spirits and those who make corporeal spirits sometimes say that the blood or thinnest part of the blood is the conjunction of the soul with the body sometimes they say that the Spirits are containd in the blood as flame in smoke and sustain'd by the perpetuall flux of it sometimes they do distinguish them from the blood Those that affirm that there are Spirits incorporeal know not how to tread but likewise doe affirm that there are potential Spirits as Spirits concoctive chilificative procreative and so many Spirits as there are faculties or parts But the Schoolmen tell us also of a Spirit of Fortitude Prudence Patience and of all the vertues and the most holy Spirit of wisdom and all divine gifts They think too that bad and good Spirits do assist possess leave and wander abroad They think also that diseases are caus'd by a Devil as by a Cacochima But although there is nothing more uncertain and doubtfull than the doctrine which is assign'd to us concerning the spirit yet for the most part all Physicians seem with Hippocrates to conclude that our bodies are made up of three parts containing containd and enforcing by
and do oppose to it the declaring of their own errours to wit that if the circulation be true there can be no revulsion since the blood is driven upon the part affected as before and so it is to be feared that there will be a passage of the excrements and blood through the most noble and principall of our entrails They do admire at the efflux and excretion when out of the same body at divers holes yea sometimes and the same hole foul and corrupt blood issues whereas if the blood were driven with a continuall flux pasing through the heat it would be mix'd and shaken together They do doubt how these and many other things that they fetch from the School of Physicians can come to pass for they seem to be repugnant to the Circulation of the blood nor do they think as it is in Astronomie that it is enough to make new Systemes unlesse you solve all scruples I thought fit to return no other answer at this time but that the Circulation is not the same every where and at all times but many things do happen from the swifter or slower motion of the blood either through the strength or infirmity of the heat which drives it by the abundance estate or constitution of the blood the thicknesse of the parts obstruction and the like thicker blood hardly finds way through narrow passages it is more strained when it passes the streyner of the liver than when it passes the streyner of the lungs It does not with a like speed passe through the thin contexture of the flesh and parenchyme as it does through the thick consistence of the nervous parts For the thinner more pure and more spirituous part is sooner streynd through the more earthy cacochymick and more tardy stayes longer and is turn'd back The nutritive part and last aliment be it the Ros or Cambium is more penetrative seeing it is to be applyed to every part whether it be to the horns feathers or nayls if being every where nourished they increase in all their dimensions for this reason the excrements in some places are voyded thickned or do burthen us or are concocted Nor do I think that there is any necessity that the excrements or ill humors being once set apart nor the milk flegm nor sperm or the last nutriment the Ros and Cambium should be return'd with the blood but that it behooves that that which nourishes should adhere that it may be agglutinated Of which and a great many other things which are to be determined and declar'd in their proper places to wit in Physiologie and the rest of the parts of Physick it is not fit to dispute nor yet of the consequences of the Circulation of the blood nor the conveniencies nor inconveniences of it before the Circulation if self be established for granted The example of Astronomie is not here to be followed where only from appearances and such a thing that may be the causes and why such a thing should be comes to be enquir'd after But as one desiring to know the cause of the Eclipse ought to be plac'd above the Moon that by his sense he might find out the cause not by reasoning of things sensible in things which come under the notion of the sense no surer demonstration can be to gain beleef than ocular testimony I desire that there may be one other remarkable experiment tryed by all that are desirous of the knowledge of the truth by which likewise the pulse of the arteries is both seen to be done by the blood and evidenced to be so If the Gutts of a dog or a wolf or any Creature stuff'd and dryed such as you see at the Apothecaries you cut away a part of it of any length and fill it with water and tie it at both ends that it is like a pudding hitting or shaking the one end of it in the end over against it by puting too of your fingers as we use to feel the pulse of the arterie above the wrist you may find every stroak and difference of the motion clearly And after this manner in every swelling vein either of living or dead you may to raw students manifest all the diferences of the pulses to the sense in greatnesse frequencie vehemency and rime For as it is in a long bladder or in a long drum all the strokes of one of the extremes is felt likewise in the other Therefore in the Hydropsie of the belly as likewise in all abscessions which are fill'd with liquid matter we use to distinguish an Anasarca from a Tympanitis If all pulses and vibrations made in one side be by touch clearly felt in the other we think it a Tympanitis and not as it is falsely beleev'd because it is like the sound of a drum and is only by flatuousnesse but because as it is in a drum every light stroke passes through it and every shake goes through the whole for it shews that there is a serous an wheyish substance within and not a tough and slimy as in the Anasarca which being thrust retains the marks of the stroke or impulsion and transmits it not Having opened this experiment there rises a most powerfull objection against the Circulation of the blood neither observ'd nor oppos'd against me by any that has hitherto written Seeing in this experiment we see that there may be Systoles c Diastoles without the egresse of the liquor who will beleeve but that it may be just so in the arteries and that in them just so as it is in an Euripus from hence thither from thence hither it may be driven by turns But in another place we have sufficiently resolv'd this doubt and now we also say that this is not so in the arteries of living creatures because continually and incessantly the right ear of the heart fils the ventricles with blood the return of which the three-pointed portals hinder and so the lefs ear fills the left ventricle and both the ventricles in the Systole throw forth the blood which the Sigmoidal portals hinder to return and that it ought therefore either passe some way and continually out of the lungs and arteries or otherwise it would at last by restagnation and intrusion break the vessels which contain it or suffocate the heart it self by distention as we have observ'd to be plain to the sense in the dissection of a live Adder in my Book concerning the motion of the blood To clear this doubt I will recite to you two experiments amongst many other of which I cold one before by which it clearly appears that the blood in the veins with a continuall and great flux runs continually towards the hearts In the internal jugular vein of a live Doe which I laid open before a great part of the Nobility and the King my Royal Master standing by which was cut and broke off in the middle From the lower part rising from the Glâ—vicule scarce a few drops did issue whilst in the mean
into the Basis of the heart the blood returns most spedity By an experiment any man may try that pleases by the veins let the arm be tyed as the custome is with a gentle ligature and let it remain tyed so long still moving the arm up and down till the veins all of them swell exceedingly and the skin grow very red below the ligature and then let the hand be washed with Snow or cold water till the blood gatherd below the ligature be cold enough then presently untying the ligature you shall find by the cold blood which returns how swiftly it runs back to the heart and what a change it will make in its return thither so that it is not to be wondred at that in the untying of the ligature in blood letting some have sounded This experiment does demonstrate that the veins below the ligature do not swell with blood attenuated and puft up with spirit but with blood only and such blood which can be reverberated into the arteries through the Anastomosis of the parts or the hidden Meanders It likewise shews how those that passe over snowy mountains are often suddenly seas'd with death and many such like Lest it should seem a difficult businesse how the blood should passe through the pores of the parts and go hither and thither I will add one experiment It happens after the same manner to those that are strangled and hang'd with a rope as it does in the typing of the arm that beyond the cord their face eyes lips tongue and all the upper parts of their head are stust'd with very much blood grow extreamred and swell till they look black in such a carcase untying the rope in whatsoever position you set it within a very few hours you shall see all the blood leave the face and the head and see it as it were fall down with its own weight from the upper to the lower parts through the pores of the skin and flesh and the rest of the parts and that it fills all the parts below and the skin chiefly colours it with black matter how much more lively and sprightly the blood is in a living body and by how much more penetrating it is through the porosites than congealed blood especially when it is condens'd through all the habit of the body by the cold of death the ways too being stopp'd and hinder'd so much the more easie and ready is the passage in those that are alive through all the parts Renatus de Cartes a most acute and ingenious man to whom for his honourable mentioning of my name I am much indebted and others with him when they see the heart of a fish taken out placed upon an even board imitate a pulse by collecting it self in its erection up-lifting vigoration they think that it is ampliated and dilated and that the ventricles of it become more capacious not according to my opinion For when it is gathered at that time the capacities of it are rather streightned and it is certain that it is then in its Sistole and not in its Diastole as neither when it falls weak and flagging and is relax'd it is then in its Diastole or distention and thence the ventricles become wider so in a dead man we do not say that his heart is in the Diastole because it is flagging without any Systole destitute of all manner of motion and not distended at all for it is distended properly and is in the Diastole when it is fill'd by the impulsion of the blood and contraction of the ear as in the Anatomie of living things is evident enough Therefore they understand not how much the relaxation and falling of the heart and arteries differ from their distention and Diastole that distention relaxation and constriction come not of the same causes but from contrary causes as making contrary effects and diverse as making divers motions as all Anatomists know very well that the opposite muscles in any part called Antagonistae are the causes of severall motions to wit of adduction and extension so there is necessarily by nature fram'd contrarie and divers active organs for contrary and divers motions Nor dos this efficient cause of pulse which he sets down according to Aristotle please me to wit that the ebullition of the blood shall be both the cause of the Systole and of the Diastole For these motions are sudden stroaks and swift hits And there is nothing that swels so like leaven or boyls up so suddenly in the twinkling of an eye and falls again but that rises leisurely and falls suddenly besides indissection you may by your own eye-sight discern that the ventricles of the heart are distended and fill'd by the constriction of the ears and are encreas'd in bignesse according as they are fill'd more or lesse and that the distention of the heart is a kind of violent motion done by impulsion not by an attraction There are some who think as there is no need of impulsion for the aliment in the nourishing of Plants but it is by little and little drawn into the place of that which is spent by the indigent parts so the vegetive faculty performs its work alike in both but there is a difference Calid influxive is continually requir'd to the entertaining of the members of creatures and preserving of vivifying heat in them and for restoring of the parts which suffer by outward injury and not for nutrition onely So much of Circulation which if it be not duely perform'd or be hinder'd or perverted or go too swiftly there follows many dangerous sorts of diseases and admirable symptoms either in the veins as swellings abscessions griefs haemeroids flux of blood or in the arteries as swellings boyls strong and pricking pains aneurisms tumors in the flesh fluxions sudden suffocations asthma's stupidity apoplexy and others innumerable Likewise it is not fit to tel in this place how as it were with an Enchantment many things are cur'd and taken away which were thought incurable I may set down such things in my medicinal observations and discourses of Pathologie which I have hitherto known to be observ'd by none I will conclude most learned Riolax to give you more ample satisfaction because you think that there is no Circulation in the mesentericks Let the vena porta be tied neer to the cymus of the liver in a live dissection which you may easily try you shall see by the swelling of the veins beneath the ligature that same come to pass which happens in blood-letting by tying of the arm which will show you the passage of the blood there And when you shall hear any man of that opinion that by Anastomosis the blood can come out of the veins into the arteries tye in a live dissection the great vein near the division of the crurals and as soon as you cut the arterie because it finds passage you shall see all the masse of blood emptied out of all the veins nay out of the ascendent cava too by the pulse of the heart in a very short time yet that below the ligature the crural veins parts below are only full Which if it could any way have returned into the arteries by an Anastomosis should never have come to passe FINIS