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
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
part of the blood through the coronall arteriese and veins by its branches which are distributed about the bodie walls and septum of the heart He says He that admits of one circulation cannot deny the other So might he have added nor can he refurse the third For to what purpose should the coronal arteries beat in the heart if they did not drive blood thither and why should the veins whose function and end it is to receive blood put into them by the arteries but that they might draw blood from the heart Moreover in the orfice of the Coronal arterie as the learned man himself confesses in his third Book and his ninth Chapter there is a portal which forbids all entrance and is patent to egresse therefore truely he cannot but admit of the third Circulation who likewise admits of another universal one and that the blood does likewise passe through the lungs and the brain lib. 4. cap. 2. For neither can there be an admittance of blood by pulsation in all parts of every region nor regresse by the veins after the same manner and therefore he cannot deny but that the parts admit of Circulation Therefore it is clear from these very words of the most learned man what his opinion is both of the Circulation of the blood through the whole bodie as likewise through the lungs and the rest of the parts for the that admits of the first Circulation it is clear that he does not reject the other For how can it be that he who has admitted of another Circulaon through the whole body so often and through the greater circulatory vessels should deny that universal Circulation in any of the branches or parts of the second or third region As if all the veins those greater circulatory vessels as he cals them were not number'd by himself and by all others amongst the vessels of the second region Is it possible that there should be circulation through the whole body and not through all the parts and therefore where he denies it he does it very stammeringly and only staggers and palliates in his negations there where he affirms he speaks understandingly and as becomes a Philosopher and as a skilful Physician and an honest man gives his advice in this case that in the dangerous diseases of the lungs the letting of blood is the only remedy against Gales and his beloved Fernelius in which thing if he had been doubtfull far be it from a Christian and so learned a man to recommend his expements to posterity to procure death and the hazzard of mens lives or that he should recede from Fernelius or Galen men in high esteem with him Therefore whatsoever he has denyed of the Circulation in the mesenterie or any other part in favour of the antient Doctrine of Physick or the Venae Lacteae or for any other regard it is to be attributed to his civility and modesty and to be prdoned I think it does already appear clearly enough both from the words and the arguments of the most learned man himself that there is a circulation every where and that blood wheresoever it is does change place and passe through the veins to the heart and the most learned man seems to be of the same opinion with me Therefore it needs not yea it were superfluous to bring hither my arguments which I have published in my Book concerning the motion of the blood for the further confirmation of this truth which are taken both from the frame of the vessels placing of the portals and other experiments and observations especially since I have not as yet seen the most learnedd mans Treatise of the Circulation of the blood nor as yet any of the most learned mans Arguments but only a bare negation by which being induced he should reject the circulation in the regions and vessels which he allows to be universal in most of the parts It is indeed true that I did find out of the authority of Galen and by dayly experience to be a refugium the Anastomosis of the veslels yet so great a man as he is so diligent so curious so expert an Anatomist should first have laid open and shown Anastomoses and those visible and open ones and whirlpools proportionable to the imperuous stream of the whole blood and the orifices of the branches from which he has taken away circulation before he had rejected those which were most probable and most open He was oblig'd to demonstrate and declare where they are how they are fram'd whether they are not onely fit for the intromission of blood as we see the arteries inserted in the bladder and not for the return of it or what other way soever they had been But perchance I speak too boldly for neither the learned man nor Galen himself could by any experience ever behold the sensible Anastomoses or ever could demonstrate them to the sense I did look after them with all possible diligence and was not at a little charge and pains in the search of the Anastomoses yet could I never find that any vessell namely the arteries together with the veins were joyn'd by their orifices I should willingly learn from others who ascribe so much to Galen that they dare swear all which he says Nor is there any Anastomosis in the liver milt lungs reins or any other of the intrals although I did boyl them till the whole Parenchyme was made mouldering and like dust was shaken off and taken away with the point of a needle from all the fibers of the vessels so that I could see the fibers and the last grains of every division I dare therefore boldy affirm that neither the vena porta has any Anastomoses with the cava nor the veins with the arteries or the capillar branches of the pore of the chollerbagg which are dispers'd about all the flat of the liver with the veins Only this you may observe in a fresh liver that all the branches of the vena cava which creep through the whole bunch of the liver have tunicles pierc'd with many holes like a sive as it is in a sink fram'd so for the receiving of the blood which falls down The branches of the Porta are not so but are divided into stems and how that both the divisions of these vessels the one in the flat the other in the gibbous part doe run round to the very furthest rising of that intrall without any Anastomoses Only in three places doe I find that which is equivalent to an Anastomosis There rises in the brain from the soporall arteries creeping down into the Basis many and unintangled fibers which afterwards make up the plexus chorois and passing through the ventricles doe at last end in the third receptacle which performs the office of a vein In the spermaticall vessels commonly call'd preparatory little arteries drawn from the great arterie do adhere to the veins preparatory aforesaid which they accompany and at last are so receiv'd within their
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
time the blood with great force and breaking out of a round stream ran out most plentifully downwards from the head through the orther orifice of the vein You may observe the same daily in Phlebotomie in the flowing out of the blood if you hold the vein fast with one finger a little below the orifice presently the flux is stopped which after you let it go flows abundantly as before In any visible long vein of your arm stretching out your hand and pressing out all the blood downwards as much as you can you shall see the vein fall leaving as it were a sorrow in the place but so soon as you thrust it back with one of your fingers you shall presently see the part towards the hand to be fill'd and swell and to rise by the return of the blood from the hand What is the reason that by stopping of the breath and by that means streightning the lungs and a great deal of it being within the pectorall vessells are streightned whence the blood is driven into the face and eyes with so much rednesse Nay that as Aristotle says in his Problemes all actions are perform'd with greater strength by keeping in of the breath than by letting it free so you get blood more abundantly out of the veins the brow or tongue by compression of the throat and retention of breath I have found sometimes in a mans body newly hanged 2 hours after his execution before the rednesse of his face was gon opening up his heart and Pericardium the right ear of his heart and lungs much stuffed and distended with blood many witnesses standing by especially I shew'd them the ear as big as a mans fist so swel'd that you would have thought it would have burst with greatnesse which the body being afterwards cold and the blood having found other ways was quite gone So from these and other experiments it is clear enough that the blood runs through all the veins to the basis of the heart and that unlesse it found passage it behov'd to be streightned or shut up in other ways and that the heart would be o'rewhelmed with it as on the other part if it did not flow out of the arteries but were regurgitated the oppression by it would quickly appear I will add another observation A noble Knight Baronet Sir Robert Darcie father to the Son-in-Law of the most learned man and my very great friend and a famous physician Dr. Argent about the middle of his age did often complain of an oppressive pain in his breast especially in the night time so that sometimes being afraid of collapsion of spirits sometimes fearing suffocation by a Paroxisme he led an unquiet and anxious life using the Counsell of all Physicians and taking many things in vain at last the disease prevailing he becomes cachectick and Hydropick and at last opprest in a signall Paroxism he died In his Corps in the presence of Dr. Argent who at that time was President of the College of Physicians and Dr. Gorge a rare Divine and a good Preacher who was at that time Minister of that Parish by the hinderance of the passage of the blood out of the left ventricle into the arteries the wall of the left ventricle it self which is seen to be thick and strong enough was broken and poured forth blood at a wide hole for it was a hole so big that it would easily receive one of my fingers I knew another stout man who did so boyl with rage because he had suffer'd an injury and receiv'd an affront by one that was more powerfull than himself that his anger and hatred being increas'd every day by reason he could not be reveng'd and discovering the passion of his mind to no body which was so exulcerate within him at last he fell into a strange sort of a disease and was torur'd and miserably tormented with great oppression and pain in his heart and brest so that the most skilfull Physicians prescriptions doing no good upon him at last after some years he fell sick of the Scorbutick disease pin'd away and dyed This man only found ease as oft as his brest was prest down by a strong man and was thump'd and beaten down as they do when they mould bread his friends thought he was bewitch'd or possess'd with the Devil He likewise had his jugular arteries distended about the greatnesse of ones thumbs as if either of them had been the Aorta it self or the Arteria magna in its descent and did beat vehemently and were to the view like two long Aneurisms which caus'd us try blood-letting in his temples but that gave him no ease In his corps I found the heart and the aorta so distended and full of blood that the bignesse of his heart and the concavities of the ventricles were equall in bignesse to that of an Oxe so great is the strength of the blood when it is shut up and so vast its force Although then by the experiment newly mention'd there may be animpulsion without an exite inthe shaking of water up and down in the pudding afore-mentioned yet cannot it be so in the blood which is in the vessels of living persons without very great and heavy impediments and dangers Yet from thence it is manifest that the blood in its Circulation does not passe every There with the same agility and swiftnesse nor with the same vehemence in all places and parts and at all times but that it varies much according to the age sex temper habir of body and other contingents external internal natural or preternatural For it does not pass through the crooked and obstructed passages with the same swiftnesse as it does through those that are open free and patent nor does it passe through bodies or dense parts and such as are stuff'd or constricted as it does through those that are thin open and without obstruction nor does it run out so swiftly and penetratively when the impulsion is slow and soft as when it is drive with force and strength and thrust forward with vehemency and abundance Nor is the thick blood or solid masse or when it is made earthy so penetrative as when it is more wheyish made thin and liquid And therefore with reason we may imagine that the blood in its Circulation goes flowlier through the reins than through the substance of the heart swiftlier through the liver than through the reins swiftlier through the spleen than through the liver swiftlier through the lungs than through the flesh or any other viscers of thinner contexture We may likewise contemplate in the age sex temperature habit of the body soft or hard of the ambient cold which condenses bodies when the veins scarce appear in the members or the sanguine colour is seen or the heat appears the blood being made more liquid by reception of nutriment So like wise the veins do more conspicuously and freely pour out the blood the body being heated before opening of a vein than
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
but more especially since the blood seems to be a great deal fuller of spirit and more penetrative than the milk or chylus which is contain'd in these vessels and is hitherto impell'd by the arteries that it may find out some way for its self The most learned man makes mention of a certain Treatise of his concerning the Circulation of the blood I wish I could see it I might perchance recant But if the most learned man thought it more fit to place the circular motion of the blood in the veins of the porta and branches of the cava as he says in his 3. Book Chap. 8. In the veins the blood does perpetnally and naturally ascend or return to the heart as likewise that which is in all the arteries descends and departs from the heart I say I do not see but upon this position all difficulties which were objected of old of the distribution of the Chylus blood through these same conduits should likewise cease that hence forward he should not need to enquire apart for or to set down vessels for the chylus seeing as the Umbilical veins do draw their nutritive juice from the liquors of the egg and carries it to the nourishing and augmentation of the Chick whilst it is yet an Embryon so do the meseraick veins suck the chylus from the intestines and carry it to the liver and what hinders us to assert that it does the like in those of riper age for all difficulties cease when there are not two contrary motions supposed in the same vessels but that we do suppose that there is one continued motion in the meseraicks from the intestines to the Liver I shall tell you in another place what is to be thought of the venae Lacteae when I shall speak of milk found in several parts of creatures new born especially in mankind for it is found in the mesenterie and all its glandules as also in the chymus likewise in the arm-pits and paps of Children the Midwives milk out the blood for their health as they beleeve But moreover it pleas'd the most learned Riolan not only to deprive the blood contain'd in the mesenterie of circulation but also he affirms that neither the branches of the vena cava or its arterie or any part of the second or third region admits of circulation so that only he cals the vena cava the aorta circulatory vessels for which in his 3 Book Chap. 8. he gives a very faint reason Because the blood sayes he flowing into all parts of the second and third region remains there for nourishment nor does it flow back to the greater vessels unless it be revulsed by the force and want of blood in the greater vessels or flow back being stirr'd with a sudden force to the circulatory vessels It is indeed of necessity that the portiō which passes into nourishment should remain for otherwise it should not nourish unless it be assimilated stay there in lieu of that which is lost so become one but it is not needfull that the whole influx of blood should remain there for the conversion of so little a portion for every part does not use so much blood for its nourishment as it contains in its veins arteries and porosities nor is it necessary in his afflux and reflux that it should leave no nourishment within it where fore it is not necessary that for nutrition it should all stay but likewise the most learned man himself in the very same book in which he affirms this does seem every where almost to affirm the contrary especially where he sets down the circulation in the brain and by circulation sayes he the brain does send back blood to the heart and so the heart is refrigerated After which sort likewise the remote parts may be said to refrigerat the heart whence also in feavers when the parts about the heart are grievously scorched and inflam'd with feaverish heat laying naked their joints and throwing off the cloaths sick people endeavor to cool their heart whilst as the most learned man affirms of the brain the blood being refrigerated and allayd of its heat do's then go to the heart through the veins and does refrigerat it Whence the most learned man seems to insinuate a kind of necessity that as from the brains so there is a circulation from all the parts otherwise than before he had openly declar'd But indeed he cautiously and ambiguously affirms That the blood does not flow back from the parts of the second and third region unlesse says he being revuls'd by the force and great want of blood in the bigger vessels or that it does by a sudden forcible motion flow back to the greater circulatory vessels which is most true if these words be understood in a true sense for by the greater vessels in which he says want causes a reflux I beleeve he understands the vena cava or the circulatory veins not the arteries for the arteries are never emptyed but into the veins or pores of the parts but they are continually stuff'd full by the pulse of the heart If all the parts did not incessantly refund blood in abundance into the vena cava and the circulatory vessels out of which the blood very suddenly passes and hastens to the heart there would quickly be a great want of blood Besides that the blood which is contained in all the parts of the second and third region by the force of the blood directed and driven by every pulse is forc'd out of the pores into the veins out of the branches into the greater vessels as likewise by the motion and compression of the parts adjacent for that which is contain'd is thrust out by every thing containing it when it is press'd and streightned so by the motion of the muscles and the joints the branches of the veins passing between being press'd and streightned thrust the blood contain'd in the lesser vessels into the greater But it is not to be doubted that the blood is continually and incessantly driven and comes with force from the arteries and never flows back if it be admitted that in every pulse all the arteries together are distended by the propulsion of blood and that the Diastole of the arteries as the most learned man confesses is from the Systole of the heart nor does the blood once gone forth return into the ventricles of the heart by reason that the portals are shut if I say the most learned man do beleeve these things as it seems he does it will easily be understood in every part of what region soever by what stuffing or impulsion the blood in them contained is forcibly thrust down For so far as the arteries beat so far reaches the influx and the force wherefore it is felt in all parts of every region for there is a pulse every where in the tops of our fingers and under the nails nor is there any part in our whole body either sore with boil or
Tunicle so that at the first they seem both to have one and the same so that when they end at the upper part of the testicles where that part passes forth into a point which is called the varicous and vine-like body we know not what to call them veins or arteries or the ends of both As likewise the last appearances of the arteries which goe to the Vmbilical vein are obliterated in the Tunicles of that vein What doubt is to be made if through such gulphes the little branches of the arteria magna swoln with the impulsion and instuffing of blood could be eas'd of so great and so conspicuous a stream Nature at least would never have denyed us visible and sensible passages sincks and whirlpools if she had had intention to have turned all the flux of the blood thither and by that meanes have deprived the lesser branches and the solide parts of the benefit of the influx of blood Lastly I will set down one experiment which seems to be sufficient for the clearing of the Anastomoses and for the overthrowing of their use and of the passage of the blood and return of it out of the veins into the arteries by those wayes Opening the breast of any creature and tying the vena cava by the heart so that nothing can passe that way into the heart and presently cutting the jugular arteries not touching the veins on neither side If by giving vent you see the arteries emptied and not the veins too I hope it will be clear that the blood is carryed out of the veins into the arteries no where but through the ventricles of the heart Otherwise as Galen has observ'd in a little space we should see the veins emptyed and destitute of blood by the efflux of the arteries In what remains Riolan I both congratulate my self and you my self for your opinion with which you have adorn'd my Circulation as likewise I return to you exceeding thanks for your learned neat succinct piece which you sent to me than which there is nothing more elegant and I both owe and desire to return deserv'd commendation but I confess I am not able for such a charge For I know the name of Riolan will afford more praise to me in its subscription than my prayses which I wish as great as may be can do to his Enchiridion The famous book shall outlive all memory and shall recommend your worth to Posterity when all Monuments shall perish To it you have very handsomly adjoyn'd the Anatomy of Diseases and have very profitably enrich'd it with a new Treatise concerning the Bones May you most worthy Man continually increase in this your worth and love me who wish that you may be both happy and long liv'd and that your most famous writings may be an eternall Commendation to you William Harvey ANOTHER EXERCITATION TO JOHN RIOLAN In which many Objections against the Circulation of the Blood are refuted MOst learned Riolan by the help of the Presse many years ago I published a part of my labour But since the birth-day of the Circulation of the Blood almost no day has past nor the least space of time in which I have not heard both good and evill of the Circulation of the Blood which I found out Others rail at it as a tender babie unworthy to come to light Others say that its worthy to be foster'd and favour my writings and defend them Some with great disdain oppose them Some with mighty appause protect them Others say that I have abundantly by many experiments observations and ocular testimony confirm'd the Circulation of the blood against all strength and force of arguments Others think it not yet sufficiently illustratted and vindicated from objections But there are who cry out that I have affected a vain commendation in dissection of living creatures and do with childish slighting dispraise and deride at Frogs and Serpents Gnats and other more inconsiderable creatures brought upon the Stage and refrain not from ill language But I think it a thing unworthy of a Philosopher and a searcher of the truth to return bad words for bad words and I think I shall doe better and more advised if with the light of true and evident observations I shall wipe away those symptomes of incivility It cannot be eschewed but doggs will bark and belch up their surfets nor can it be help'd but that the Cynicks will be amongst the number of the Philosophers but we must take a speciall care that they doe not bite nor infect us with their cruell madnesse or lest they should with their doggs teeth gnaw the very bones or principles of truth Detractors Momes and writers staind with railing as I never intended to read any of them from whom nothing of solidity nor any thing extraordinary is to be hop'd for but bad words so did I much lesse think them worthy of an answer Let them enjoy their own cursed nature I beleeve they will find but a few favourable Readers neither does God give wisdom to the wicked which is the most excellent gift and most to be sought for Let them rail on still till they be weary if not asham'd of it If you will enter with Heraclitus in Aristotle into a work-house for so I will call it for inspection of viler creatures come hithet for the immortal gods are here likewise and the great and Almighty Father is sometimes most conspicuous in the least and most inconsiderable creatures In my book concerning the motion of the heart and blood in creatures I only chose out those things out of my many other observations by which I either thought that errours were confuted or truth was confirm'd I left out many things as unnecessary and unprofitable which notwithstanding are discernable by dissection and sense of which I shall now adde some in few words in favour of those that desire to learn The great autority of Galen is of so much account with every body that I see many make a difficulty as concerning that experiment of Galen of the ligature of the artenie above the pipe thrust within the concavity of the arterie by which it is demonstrated that the pulse of the arterie comes from the facultie pulsifick and that it is transmitted from the heart by the tunicles and not by the impulsion of the blood within the Concavities and therefore that the arteries are stretch'd as bellowes not as baggs This experiment is mentioned by Vesâ—alius a man very skilfull in Anatomy but neither Galen nor Vesalius says that they tryed this experiment which I did only Vesalius prescribes it and Galen counsells it to those that are desirous no find out the truth not thinking nor knowing the difficulty of that businesse nor the vanity of it when it is done since although it be perform'd with all manner of diligence it makes nothing to the confirmation of that opinion which affirms That the tunicles are the cause of pulsation but rather shows That it is set a-work by
the impulsion of the blood For so soon as above the reed or pipe you have with a band tyed the arterie the arterie above the ligature is presently dilated by the impulsion of the blood beyond the mouth of the pipe from whence both the flux is stop'd and the impulsion reverberated so that the arterie under the band does beat with very little appearance because the force of the passage of the blood does no way assist it because it is return'd above the ligature but if the arterie the cut off below the pipe you shall see the contrary from the leaping of the blood which is thrown out and driven through the pipe as in an Aneurism I have observ'd to come fró the exesion of the tunicles of the arterie this whilst the blood is containd within the membranes hath a contentive vessel of its flux praenaturally made not of the dilated tunicles of the arterie but of the circumposition of the membrane and flesh You shall see the inferiour arteries beyond this Aneurism beat very weakly whilst above and especially in the Aneurism it self the pulsations appear great and vehement although we cannot there imagine that the impulse or dilatation is made by the tunicles of the arteries or by communication of the faculty of the Cyst but meerly by the impulsion of the blood But that the error of Vesalius and the small experience of others may the more clearly appear who affirm as they imagine that the part under the pipe does not beat when the band is tyed I speak by experience if you make the experiment rightly that it will and whereas they say that upon the untying the band the arteries below xdo beat backwards I say that the part below beats lesse when you have untyed it then when it is tyed But the effusion of blood which leaps out of the wound confuses all and makes the experiment vain and to no purpose so that there can be no certainty demonstrated as I said by reason of the blood But if and this I know by experience you lay open the arterie and hold with your finger close that part which you cut you may at your pleasure try many things which will evidently make the truth appear to you First you shall feel the blood being forc'd comming down into the arterie by which you shall see the arterie dilated as likewise you may squeez out and let go the blood as you please If you open a little part of the orifice and look narrowly to it you shall see the blood at every pulse to be thrown out with a leaping and as we said in the opening of an arterie or in the perforation of the heart you shall see the blood to be thrown out in every contraction of the heart in the dilatation of the arterie But if you suffer it to flow with a constant and continuall flux and give it leave to break out either through the pipe or by the open orifice in the streaming of it both by your sight and by your touch you shall find all the stroaks order vehemency and intermission of the heart just as you might feel in the pulse of your hand water squirted through a syringe at divers and severall shootings so you may perceive both by your sight and by its motion the blood leaping out with a varying and unequall force I have seen it sometimes in the cutting of the jugular arterie break out with such force that the blood being forc'd against the hand did by its reverberation and refraction flye back four or five foot But that this doubt may be more clear that the pulsifick force does not flow through the Tunicles of the arteries from the hoant I have a little piece of the arterie descendant together with two crurall branches of it about the length of a span taken out of the body of a very worthy Gentleman which turn'd to be a bone like a pipe by the hollow of which whilst this worthy Gentleman was alive the blood in its descent to the feet did agitate the arteries by its impulsion in which case neverthelesse although the arterie were in the same condition as if it had been bound or tyed above the little conduit-pipe according to the experiment of Galen that it could not either be dilalated in that place nor streightned like a pair of bellowes nor from the heart derive its pulsifick force to the inferior and lesser arteries nor yet carry through the solid substance of the bones that faculty which it had not receiv'd yet I very well remember that I often observ'd whilst he was alive that the pulse of the inferiour arterie did move in his legs and feet wherefore it must needs follow that in in that worthy Gentleman the inferiour arteries were dilated by the impulsion of the blood like baggs and not like bellows by the stretching of the tunicles For there must needs arrive the same inconvenience and interception of the pulsifick faculty the tunicle of the arterie being wholly converted into a conduit or pipe of bone as might arrive from the reed or pipe which was tyed that the arterie might not beat I knew likewise in another worthy and gallant Gentleman the aorta and a part of the great arterie near the heart turn'd into a round bone So Galens experiment or at least one answerable to it being not found out by industry was found out by chance and does manifestly evidence that the interception of the pulsifick faculty is not intercepted by the construction or ligature of the Tunicles so that by that means the arteries cannot beat and if the experiment which Galen prescribes were rightly perform'd by any it would refute the opinion which Vesalius thought from thence to have confirm'd Yet for this cause do we not deny all motion to the tunicles of the arteries but do attribute that to it which we grant to the heart namely that there is a coarctation and a Systole in the tunicles themselves and from their distension a regress to their naturall constitution But if this is to be observ'd that they are not dilated and streightned for the same cause nor by the same instrument but by severall as you may observe in the motion of all the parts and in the heart it is distended by the ear contracted by it self so the arteries are dilated by the heart and fall of themselves So you may make another experiment after the same manner If you fill two sawcers of the same measure one of them with arterial blood which leaps out the the other with venal blood drawn out of a vein of the same Animal you may presently by your sense and afterwards too when both the bloods are grown cold observe what is the difference betwixt both the bloods against those who do fancy another sort of blood in the arteries than is in the veins namely they do ascribe to the veins a fresher sort of blood I doe not know which way boyling or blown up swelling or bubbling
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
moneth not suffocated for want of ayr since one that is born in the seventh or eighth so soon as he has breathed in the air is presently choak'd if it have no air How can it retain life whilst it is yet within the Secundine or as yet not come forth without breath but so soon as hecomes into the air unlesse he breath he cannot live Because I see many men doubtful in the Circulation and some men oppose such things which understand them not aright as I intended them I shall bridfly reherse out of my Book of the motion of the heart and blood what I did there intend The blood which is containd in the veins as in its own hold where it is most abundant to wit in the vena cava near to the Bajis of the heart and the right ear growing hot by little and little by its own internal heat and made thin it swels and rises like leaven whence the ear being first dilated and afterwards contracting it self by its pulsifick faculty streightways drives it out into the right ventricle of the heart which being fill'd in its Systole and consequently freeing it self from that blood which is driven into it the three-pointed portals refusing passage to it it drives the same blood into the vena arteriosa where the passage is open by which it does distend it Now the blood in the arterious vessel being not able to return against the Sigmoidal portals but because the lungs are extended amplified and restricted both by imspiration and expiration and likewise their vessels they give passage to this blood into the arteria venosa of which the left ear keeping together equal motion time and order with the right ear and performing its function sends the same blood into the left ventricle as the right tricle sent into the right whence the left ventricle together and at the same time with the right since it can gain no regresse by reason of the portalls which hinder its return drives it into the capaciousnesse of the aorta and consequently into all the branches of the arterie the arteries being filled with this sudden pulse being not able so suddenly to disburthen themselves are distended suffer an impulsion and Diastole Whence I gather seeing the same is reiterated continually and incessantly that the arteries both in the lungs and in the whole body by so many stroaks and impulsions of the heart would be so distended and stuffed with blood at least that either the impulsion would give over all together or elfe the arteries would burst or be so dilated that would contain the whole masse of blood which is in the veins unlesse the efflux of blood were disburthen'd somewhere We may likewise reason after the same manner of the ventricles of the heart being fill'd stuff'd with blood unlesse the arteries did likewise disburthen they would be at last distended and destitute of all motion This consequence of mine is demonstrative and true and followes of necessity if the premises be true but our senses ought of assure us whether such things be false or true and not our reason ocular testimony and no contemtplation I affirm likewise of the blood in the veins that the blood does always and every where run out of the lesse into the greater and hastens towards the heart from every part whence I gather that whatsoever quantitie which is continually sent in the arteries do receive by the veins that the same does return and does at last flow back thither from whence it is first driven and that by this means the blood moves circularly being driven in its flux and reflux by the heart by whose force it is driven into all the fibers of the arteries and that it does afterwards successively by a continuall flux return through the veins from all those parts which draw and streyn it through sense it self teaches us that this is true and collections from things obvious to sense takes away all occasion of doubt Lastly this is that I did endeavour to relate and lay open by my observations and experiments and not to demonstrate by causes and probable principles but to confirm it by sense and experience as by a powerfull authority according to the rule of Anatomists From these we may observe what force and violence and strong vehemencie we perceive in the heart and greater arteries by touch sight I do not say that in all the vessels which contain the blood the pulse of the Systole and Diastole is the same in greater Creatures nor in all creatures which have blood but that there is such a one and so great in all that by that means there is a flux of blood and swifter course of it through the small arteries the porosities of the parts and branches of all the veins and from thence comes the Circulation for neither the small arteries nor the veins do beat but only the arteries which are nighest to the heart because they do not so soon send the blood out as it is driven into them for you may try opening of an arterie if the blood leap out in full stream so that it come out as freely as it went in that you scarce found any pulse in that arterie through which it passes because the blood running through and finding passage does not distend it In Fishes Serpents and colder creatures the heart beats slowlie and weaker that you will hardly perceive any pulse in the arteries because they passe their blood through very slowlie whence it is that in these as also in the little fibers of the arteries of a man there is no distinction by blood because they are not pierc'd with impulsion of blood As I said before the blood that passes through an arterie which is cut and opened makes no pulse there at all whence it clearly appears that the arteries suffer their Diastole neither by innate pulsifick faculty nor by any granted them from the heart but by the meer impulsion of the blood For in the full flux flowing out the length of its course you may by touch perceive both the Systole and Diastole as I said before and all the differences of the pulse of the heart their time order vehemency intermission in the emanation of th eflux evidently as it were in a looking-glass Just as water by the force and impulsion of a spout is driven aloft through pipes of lead we may observe and distinguish all the forcings of the Engine though you be a good way off in the flux of the water when it passes out the order beginning increase end and vehemency of every motion Even so it is when you cut off the orifice of an arterie where you must observe That as in the water the flux is continuall though it be sometimes nigher sometimes further so in the arteries besides the shaking pulse and concussion of the blood which is not equally to be perceived in all from that time forward there is a continual motion and fluxion in the blood till
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
the forcing he means Spirits But if Spirits must be understood to be every thing which enforces in a mans body whatsoever hath the power or force of action in living bodies must be call'd by the name of Spirit Therefore all the Spirits are not aeriall substances nor powers nor habits nor incorporeal But omitting the tediousnesse of all other significations to our purpose Those Spirit which passe out through the veins or the arteries are not separable from the blood no more than flame form the flakes about it But the blood and the Spirit signifie the same thing though divers in essence as good Wine and its Spirit For as Wine is no more Wine after it has lost its Spirit but flat sluff or vinegar so neither blood without Spirit is blood but equivocally goar as a hand of stone or a dead hand is no more a hand so blood without vital spirit is no more to be esteemed blood So the Spirit which is chiefly in the arteries and the arterial blood is as its act as the Spirit of Wine in Wine and the Spirit of Aquavitae or as a little flame kindled in the Spirit of Wine and living by nouristing of it self Therefore blood when it is most imbued with Spirits it does require and look after more room because it is swell'd or leaven'd and blown up by them which you may certainly judge in my experiment which I brought concerning the measure of the sawcers but like wine because it has greater strength and force of action and performance in which it excels according to the mind of Hippocrates Therefore the same blood is in the veins which is in the arteries though it be acknowledg'd to be more full of Spirit and more eminent in vital force but it is not converted into something more aerial or vaporous as if there were no Spirits but aerial ones or none that had force but such as were flatuous and windy But neither are the Animal Spirits natural and vital which are containd in the solid parts to wit the ligaments and nerves especially if there be so many severall sorts of them thought to be so many aerial forms or divers sorts of vapours Those who acknoledge Spirits in the bodies of creatures but such as are corporal but of an aerial consistence or vaporous or fierie of them would I fain know Whether they can passe hither and thither backward and forward as distinct bodies without the blood Whether or no I say the Spirits follow the motion of the blood as if they were either parts of the blood or adhering to it by an indissoluble connexion and an interrupted exhalation so that they can neither leave the parts nor passe without the influx reflux and passing of the blood For if as the vapours attenuated by the heat of the water the Spirits by the continuall flux and succession of the blood become the nourishment of the parts it will necessarily follow that they cannot remain apart from the nourishment but do continually vanish for that same reason that they neither flow back nor pass any way nor abide but according to the influxion refluxion or passing of the blood as being either ther subject vehiculum or nourishment Then I would know how they show us that Spirits are made in the heart and do make them up either by the compounding of exhalations or vapours of the blood rais'd either by the heat or concussion of the heart Are not such Spirits to be thought much colder than the blood since both the parts of which they are compounded to wit air and vapour are much colder for the vapour of boyling water it self and any flame burns lesse than the coal of a candle and a wood-coal lesse than iron or brasse red hot whence it seems that such Spirits doe owe their heat to the blood rather than the blood is heated by the Spirits and such Spirits are rather to be deem'd fumes and excrements flowing from the blood and body like smels than workers in Nature especially since they being so frail and vanishing do so quickly lose that vertue which in their original they receive from the blood From whence it were likewise probable that there should be an expiration of the lungs by which these Spirits being blown out might be ayr'd and purified and that there should be an inspiration into them that the blood passing through betwixt the two ventricles of the heart might be temper'd by the ambient cold lest being heated and rising and swelling with a kind of fermentation like boyling honey or milk it should so distend the lungs as to suffocate the creature as in a dangerous Asthma we have often seen To which Galen likewise ascribes the reason when he says that this comes to passe by obstruction of the little arteries namely the venous and arterious vessels I have had experience of this that by affixing of Cupping-glasses and pouring upon them good store of cold water there has many been sav'd who have been in danger to be suffocated by an Asthma I have here perchance spoken sufficiently concerning Spirits which we ought to define and show what and how they are in a Treatise of Physiologie only I will adjoyn Those that speak concerning innate warmth as an ordinary instrument of Nature in performance of all things and tell us of the necessity of influxive heat to entertain all the parts and keep them in life and doe acknowledge that it cannot exist without a subject because they find a movable bodie disproportionable by reason of the swiftnesse of the flux and reflux especially in the passions of the mind and because of the swift motion of this heat they introduce Spirits as bodies most subtle penetrative and movalbe and just as they say that from that ordinary instrument to wit the innate heat proceeds the admirable divinity of Natural operations so doe they likewise affirm that those Spirits of a sublime bright aethereal and celestial nature are the bonds of the Soul as the ignorant common-people when they do not conceive the reasons of things think and say that God in the immediate author of them that is comes through the arteries as if the blood could not be so speedily mov'd not so full nourish and in the confidence of this opinion they are so far advanced that they deny that there is any blood contained in the arteries Whence they resolve that the influxive heat does come swiftly through all the parts by the influx of Spirit and And with very flight arguments they endeavour to ground this that the arterial blood differs from the blood of the veins or that the arteries are fill'd with such Spirits and not with blood contrary to all that which Galen both from reason and experience brought against Eraâ—â—stratus But it is manifest by our former experiment and by sense that the arterial blood is not so different the influx of the blood and Spirt with it being not separate from the blood but that it flows in one