Year or two before who is not near so exact as Monsieur du Verney The other Parts of the Head and Neck wherein the Old Anatomy was the most defective were the Tongue as to its internal Texture and the Glands of the Mouth Jaws and Throat The Texture of the Tongue was but guessed at which occasioned great Disputes concerning the Nature of its Substance some thinking it to be glandulous some muscular and some of a peculiar Nature not to be matched in any other part of the Body This therefore Malpighius examined with his Glasses and discovered that it was cloathed with a double Memorane that in the inner Membrane there are Abundance of small Papillae which have extremities of Nerves inserted into them by which the Tongue discerns Tasts and that under that Membrane it is of a muscular Nature consisting of numberless Heaps of Fibres which run all manner of Ways over one another like a Mat. The general Uses of the Glands of the Mouth Jaws and Neck were anciently known it was visible that the Mouth was moistend by them and the Mass of the Spittle supplied from them and then having named them from the Places near which they lie as the Palate the Jaws the Tongue the Ears the Neck they went no further and there was little if any thing more done till Dr. Wharton and Nicolaus Steno examined these Glands And upon an exact Enquiry Four several Salival Ducts have been discovered which from several Glands discharge the Spittle into the Mouth The First was described by Dr. Wharton near Forty Years ago it comes from the conglomerate Glands that lie close to the inner side of the lower Jaw and discharges it self near the middle of the Chin into the Mouth The Second was found out by Steno who published his Observations in 1662 this comes from those Glands that lie near the Ears in the inside of the Cheek and the outside of the upper-Jaw The Third was found out by Thomas Bartholin who gave an Account of it in 1682 and about the same Time by one Rivinus a German It arises from the Glands under the Tongue and going in a distinct Canal to the Mouth of Wharton's Duct there for the most Part by a common Orifice opens into the Mouth The Fourth was discovered by Monsieur Nuck he found a Gland within the Orbit of the Eye from which not far from the Mouth of Steno's Duct Spittle is supplied to the Mouth by a peculiar Canal Besides these the same Monsieur Nuck found some smaller Glands near the last but lower down which by Four distinct Pipes carry some Spittle into the Mouth so careful has Nature been to provide so many Passages for that necessary and noble Juice that if some should fail others might supply their Want CHAP. XVIII Of the Circulation of the Blood FRom the Head we are to look into the Thorax and there to consider the Heart and the Lungs The Lungs as most of the other Viscera were believed to be of a Parenchymous Substance till Malpighius found by his Glasses that they consist of innumerable small Bladders that open into each other as far as the outermost which are covered by the outer Membrane that incloses the whole Body of the Lungs And that the small Branches of the Wind-Pipe are all inserted into these Bladders about every one of which the Veins and Arteries are entwined in an unconceivable Number of Nets and Mazes that so the inspired Air may press upon or mix with the Mass of Blood in such small Parcels as the Ancients had no Notion of The Wind-Pipe also it self is nourished by an Artery that creeps up the Back-side and accompanies it in all its Branchings Which was first found out by Frederic Ruysch a Dutch Professor of Anatomy at Leyden about Thirty Years ago But the great Discovery that has been made of the Lungs is That the whole Mass of Blood is carried out of the Right Ventricle of the Heart by the Arteria Pulmonaris called anciently Vena Arteriosa through all the small Bladders of the Lungs into the Vena Pulmonaris or Arteria Venosa and from thence into the Left Ventricle of the Heart again So that the Heart is a strong Pump which throws the Blood let in from the Veins into the Lungs and from the Lungs afterwards into the Arteries and this by a constant rapid Motion whereby the Blood is driven round in a very few Minutes This Discovery first made perfectly intelligible by Dr. Harvey is of so very great Importance to shew the Communication of all the Humours of the Body each with other that as soon as Men were perfectly satisfied that it was not to be contested which they were in a few Years a great many put in for the Prize unwilling that Dr. Harvey should go away with all the Glory Vander Linden who published a most exact Edition of Hippocrates in Holland about Thirty Years ago has taken a great deal of Pains to prove that Hippocrates knew the Circulation of the Blood and that Dr. Harvey only revived it The Substance of what has been said in this Matter is this that Hippocrates speaks in one Place of the Usual and Constant Motion of the Blood That in another Place he calls the Veins and Arteries the Fountains of Humane Nature the Rivers that water the whole Body that convey Life and which if they be dried up the Man dies That in a Third Place he says That the Blood-Vessels which are dispersed over the whole Body give Spirit Moisture and Motion and all spring from one which one Blood-Vessel has no Beginning nor no End that I can find for where there is a Circle there is no Beginning These are the clearest Passages that are produced to prove that Hippocrates knew the Circulation of the Blood and it is plain from them that he did believe it as an Hypothesis that is in plain English that he did suppose the Blood to be carried round the Body by a constant accustomed Motion But that he did not know what this constant accustomed Motion was and that he had not found that Course which in our Age Dr. Harvey first clearly demonstrated will appear evident from the following Considerations 1. He says nothing of the Circulation of the Blood in his Discourse of the Heart where he Anatomizes it as well as he could and speaks of the Ventricles and the Valves which are the immediate Instruments by which the Work is done 2. He believes that the Auricles of the Heart are like Bellows which receive the Air to cool the Heart Now there are other Uses of them certainly known since they assist the Heart in the Receiving of the Blood from the Vena Cava and the Vena Pulmonaris This cannot be unknown to any Man that knows how the Blood circulates and accordingly would have been mentioned by Hippocrates had he known of it 3. Hippocrates speaks of Veins as
receiving Blood from the Heart and going from it Which also was the constant Way of Speaking of Galen and all the Ancients Now no Man that can express himself properly will ever say That any Liquors are carried away from any Cistern as from a Fountain or Source through those Canals which to his Knowledge convey Liquors to that Cistern 4. Hippocrates says the Blood is carried into the Lungs from the Heart for the Nourishment of the Lungs without assigning any other Reason These seem to be positive Arguments that Hippocrates knew nothing of this Matter and accordingly all his Commentators Ancient and Modern before Dr. Harvey never interpreted the former Passages of the Circulation of the Blood Neither would Vander Linden in all probability if Dr. Harvey had not helped him to the Notion which he was then resolved to find in Hippocrates whom he supposed not the Father only but the Finisher also of the whole Medical Art It is pretended to by none of the Ancients or rather their Admirers for them after Hippocrates As for Galen any Man that reads what he says of the Heart and Lungs in the 6th Book of his De Usu Partium must own that he does not discourse as if he were acquainted with Modern Discoveries and therefore it is not so much as pretended that he knew this Recurrent Motion of the Blood Which also further shews that if Hippocrates did know it he explained himself so obscurely that Galen could not understand him who in all probability understood Hippocrates's Text as well as any of his Commentators who have written since the Greek Tongue and much more since the Ionic Dialect has ceased to be a living Language Since the Ancients have no Right to so noble a Discovery it may be worth while to enquire to whom of the Moderns the Glory of it is due for this is also exceedingly contested The first Step that was made towards it was the finding that the whole Mass of the Blood passes through the Lungs by the Pulmonary Artery and Vein The first that I could ever find who had a distinct Idea of this Matter was Michael Servetus a Spanish Physician who was burnt for Arianism at Geneva near 140 Years ago Well had it been for the Church of Christ if he had wholly confined himself to his own Profession His Sagacity in this Particular before so much in the dark gives us great Reason to believe that the World might then have had just Cause to have blessed his Memory In a Book of his intituled Christianismi Restitutio printed in the Year MDLIII he clearly asserts that the Blood passes through the Lungs from the Left to the Right Ventricle of the Heart and not through the Partition which divides the two Ventricles as was at that Time commonly believed How he introduces it or in which of the Six Discourses into which Servetus divides his Book it is to be found I know not having never seen the Book my self Mr. Charles Bernard a very learned and eminent Chirurgeon of London who did me the Favour to communicate this Passage to me set down at length in the Margin which was transcribed out of Servetus could inform me no further only that he had it from a learned Friend of his who had himself copied it from Servetus Realdus Columbus of Cremona was the next that said any thing of it in his Anatomy printed at Venice 1559. in Folio and at Paris in 1572. in Octavo and afterwards elsewhere There he asserts the same Circulation through the Lungs that Servetus had done before but says that no Man had ever taken notice of it before him or had written any Thing about it Which shews that he did not copy from Servetus unless one should say that he stole the Notion without mentioning Servetus's Name which is injurious since in these Matters the same Thing may be and very often is observed by several Persons who never acquainted each other with their Discoveries But Columbus is much more particular for he says That the Veins lodge the whole Mass of the Blood in the Vena Cava which carries it into the Heart whence it cannot return the same Way that it went from the Right Ventricle it is thrown into the Lungs by the Pulmonary Artery where the Valves are so placed as to hinder its Return that Way into the Heart and so it is thrown into the Left Ventricle and by the Aorta again when enliven'd by the Air diffused through the whole Body Some Years after appeared Andreas Caesalpinus who printed his Peripatetical Questions at Venice in Quarto in 1571. And afterwards with his Medical Questions at the same Place in 1593. He is rather more particular than Columbus especially in examining how Arteries and Veins joyn at their Extremities which he supposes to be by opening their Mouths into each other And he uses the Word Circulation in his Peripatetical Questions which had never been used in that Sence before He also takes notice that the Blood swells below the Ligature in veins and urges that in Confirmation of his Opinion At last Dr. William Harvey printed a Discourse on purpose upon this Subject at Francfort in 1628. This Notion had only been occasionally and slightly treated of by Columbus and Caesalpinus who themselves in all probability did not know the Consequence of what they asserted and therefore it was never applied to other Purposes either to shew the Uses of the other Viscera or to explain the Natures of Diseases Neither for any Thing that appears at this Day had they made any Numbers of Experiments which were necessary to explain their Doctrine and to clear it from Opposition All this Dr. Harvey undertook to do and with indefatigable Pains traced the visible Veins and Arteries throughout the Body in their whole Journey from and to the Heart so as to demonstrate even to the most incredulous not only that the Blood circulates through the Lungs and Heart but the very Manner how and the Time in which that great Work is performed When he had once proved that the Motion of the Blood was so rapid as we now find it is then he drew such Consequences from it as shewed that he throughly understood his Argument and would leave little at least as little as he could to future Industry to discover in that particular Part of Anatomy This gave him a just Title to the Honour of so noble a Discovery since what his Predecessors had said before him was not enough understood to form just Notions from their Words One may also observe how gradually this Discovery as all abstruse Truths of Humane Disquisition was explained to the World Hippocrates first talked of the Usual Motion of the Blood Plato said That the Heart was the Original of the Veins and of the Blood that was carried about every Member of the Body Aristotle also somewhere speaks of a Recurrent Motion of the Blood Still all this was only Opinion and Belief It
more valuable than is commonly believed in a Letter to Dr. Huntingdon printed in the Philosophical Transactions containing their Observations of the Latitudes of Twenty of the most eminent of the Fixed Stars We owe indeed to them alone the Way of Counting by Ten Cyphers ascending beyond Ten in a Decuple Proportiou which is of unspeakable Use in Astronomical and Algebraical Calculations and indeed in all Parts of Arithmetick The Use of Chymistry in Physick together with some of the most considerable Chymical Preparations which have led the Way to most of the late Discoveries that have been made in that Art and in Natural Philosophy by its Means have been unanimously ascribed to the Arabs by those Physicians that have studied their Books Though in Strictness the whole Arabian Learning with all their Inventions what and how great soever they were may be reckoned as Modern according to Sir William Temple's Computation But I am willing to give it up and content my self with what has been done by the learned Men of these two last Ages since the Greeks brought their Learning along with them into Italy upon the Taking of Constantinople by the Turks At least this is evident that the old Arabian Learning could never be any one of those Fountains from whence the Grecian might have been drawn and so can never be urged as such by those who give an Account of the History of Learning CHAP. XII Of the Learning of the Chineses BY this Time I am afraid I shall be thought as tedious as an Irish Tale-teller fit for nothing but to lull my Reader asleep But there is but one Stage more left and though it is a great Way off yet it may be easily reached upon Paper and then will be as easily dispatched For China we are told is a charming Country and therefore most proper to be thought upon at the End of a tedious Discourse Sir William Temple knows very well That the whole Chinese History depends upon the sole Authority of Martinius and those Missionaries who published Confucius lately at Paris Martinius tells his Reader that he was obliged to learn Sixty Thousand independent Characters before he could read the Chinese Authors with Ease This is without all doubt an excellent Method to propagate Learning when Eight or Ten of the best Years of a Man's Life must be spent in learning to read The most considerable Specimen of Chinese Learning that we have is in the Writings of Confucius which if F. Couplet and his Companions had Printed under their own Names Sir William Temple would have been one of the first that would have called those Rules and Instructions discoursed of with great Compass of Knowledge Excellence of Sense Reach of Wit illustrated with Elegance of Stile and Aptness of Similitudes and Examples an incoherent Rhapsody of moral Sayings which good Sense and tolerable Experience might have furnished any Man with If the Chineses think every part of Knowledge but their own Confucian Ethicks ignoble and mechanical why are the European Missionaries so much respected for their Skill in Medicine and Mechanicks So much Knowledge in Mathematicks as will but just serve an Almanack-maker will do their Business F. Verbrist says in a Letter Printed some Years since in the Philosophical Transactions That the Honours which were paid him in the Emperour's Court were in a great Measure owing to his teaching the Emperour to find the Time of the Night by the fixed Stars and an Astrolable This shews that the Chineses were very meanly skilled in these things and it is probable that those who are ignorant of such ordinary Matters seldom carry their Speculations to a much greater Height Martinius and Trigautius who lived long in China were able fully to inform the World of the Extent of the Chinese Knowledge and the Pains which Martinius has taken to write the History and to state the Geography of that mighty Empire is a sufficient Indication of his great Willingness to advance its Reputation in Europe The Chineses are allowed to be a sagacious and industrious People and their Skill in many mechanical Arts shew them to be so so that if they had ever applied themselves to Learning in good earnest and that for near so long a Time as their History pretends to there is no Question but we should have heard much more of their Progress And therefore whatsoever can be said of Chinese Knowledge can never be of any Weight as long as small Skill in Physick and Mathematicks shall be enough to protect the European Missionaries in a Court where they themselves are esteemed the greatest Scholars and honoured accordingly But the Chinese Physick is wonderfully commended by Dr. Vossius and Sir William Temple The Physicians excel in the Knowledge of the Pulse and of all simple Medicines and go little further Neither need they for in the first they are so skillful that they pretend not only to tell by it how many Hours or Days a sick Man may last but how many Years a Man in perfect seeming Health may live in Case of no Accident or Violence and by Simples they pretend to relieve all Diseases that Nature will allow to be cured What this boasted Skill is may be seen in the little Tracts of the Chinese Physick published by Andrew Cleyer but because few will in all Probability have Patience to go through with them since they are not very pleasant to read I shall give a short Specimen of them by which one may judge of the rest The most Ancient Chinese Discourse of Physick Intituled Nuy Kim gives this Account of the Production of our Bodies and of the Relation of the several parts with the Five Elements Out of the Eastern Region arises the Wind out of the Wind Wood or Plants out of Wood Acidity from thence the Liver from the Liver the Nerves from them the Heart The Liver is generated the Third in Order and perfected the Eighth The Spirits of the Liver as they relate to the Heaven the Air are Wind as Wood in the Earth as the Nerves in our Bodies so is the Liver in the Limbs Its Colour is Blue and its Use and Action is to move the Nerves The Eyes are the Windows of the Liver its Tast is acid its Passion or Affection is Anger Anger hurts the Liver but Sorrow and Compassion conquer Anger because Sorrow is the Passion of the Lungs and the Lungs are Enemies to the Liver Wind hurts the Nerves but Drought the Quality of the Lungs conquers Wind Acidity hurts the Nerves but Acrimony or that sharp Tast which is proper to the Lungs conquers Acidity or Metal conquers Wood. Out of the Southern Region arises Heat out of Heat Fire out of Fire Bitterness From it the Heart is generated thence the Blood out of Blood comes the Spleen or Earth out of Fire the Heart governs the Tongue that which is Heat in Heaven Fire upon Earth Pulsation in the Body is the
was rational and became Men of their Genius's but not having as yet been made evident by Experiments it might as easily be denied as affirmed Servetus first saw that the Blood passes through the Lungs Columbus went further and shew'd the Uses of the Valves or Trap-doors of the Heart which let the Blood in and out of their Respective Vessels but not the self same Road Thus the Way was just open when Dr. Harvey came who built upon the First Foundations to make his Work yet the easier the Valves of the Veins which were discovered by F. Paul the Venetian had not long before been explained by Fabricius ab Aqua pendente whence the Circulation was yet more clearly demonstrated There was one thing still wanting to compleat this Theory and that was the Knowledge how the Veins received that Blood which the Arteries discharged first it was believed that the Mouths of each sort of Vessels joined into one another that Opinion was soon laid aside because it was found that the capillary Vessels were so extremely small that it was impossible with the naked Eye to trace them This put them upon imagining that the Blood ouzes out of the Arteries and is absorbed by the Veins whose small Orifices receive it as it lies in the Fibres of the Muscles or in the Parenchyma's of the Bowels Which Opinion has been generally received by most Anatomists since Dr. Harvey's Time But Monsieur Leeuwenhoek has lately found in several sorts of Fishes which were more manageable by his Glasses than other Animals That Arteries and Veins are really continued Syphons variously wound about each other towards their Extremities in numberless Mazes over all the Body and others have found what he says to be very true in a Water Newt So that this Discovery has passed uncontested And since it has been constantly found that Nature follows like Methods in all sorts of Animals where she uses the same sorts of Instruments it will always be believed That the Blood circulates in Men after the same Manner as it does in Eels Perches Pikes Carps Bats and some other Creatures in which Monsieur Leeuwenhoek tried it Though the Ways how it may be visible to the Eye in Men have not that I know of been yet discovered However this visible Circulation of the Blood in these Creatures effectually removes Sir William Temple's Scruple who seems unwilling to believe the Circulation of the Blood because he could not see it His Words are these Nay it is disputed whether Harvey 's Circulation of the Blood be true or no for though Reason may seem to favour it more than the contrary Opinion yet Sense can very hardly allow it and to satisfie Mankind both these must concurr Sense therefore here allows it and that this Sense might the sooner concurr Monsieur Leeuwenhoek describes the Method how this Experiment may be tried in his 66 th Letter The Inferences that may be made from this Noble Discovery are obvious and so I shall not stay to mention them CHAP. XIX Further Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Anatomy IF after this long Enquiry into the First Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood it should be found that the Anatomy of the Heart was but slightly known to the Ancients it will not I suppose be a Matter of any great Wonder The First Opinion which we have of the Texture of the Heart was that of Hippocrates that it is a very strong Muscle this tho' true was rejected afterwards for want of knowing its true Use its internal Divisions its Valves and larger visible Fibres were well known and distinctly described by the Ancients only they were mistaken in thinking that there is a Communication between the Ventricles through the Septum which is now generally known to be an Errour The Order of the Muscular Fibres of the Heart was not known before Dr. Lower who discovered them to be Spiral like a Snale-Shell as if several Skains of Threads of differing Lengths had been wound up into a Bottom of such a Shape hollow and divided within By all these Discoveries Alphonsus Borellus was enabled to give such a Solution of all the Appearances of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in the Arteries upon Mathematical and Mechanical Principles as will give a more satisfactory Account of the wonderful Methods of Nature in dispensing Life and Nourishment to every Part of the Body than all that had ever been written upon these Subjects before those things were found out Below the Midriff are several very noble Viscera The Stomach the Liver the Pancreas or Sweet-Bread the Spleen the Reins the Intestines the Glands of the Mesentery and the Instruments of Generation of both Sexes in the Anatomical Knowledge of all which Parts the Ancients were exceedingly defective The Coats of the Stomach have been separated and the several Fibres of the middle Coat examined by Dr. Willis with more Exactness than formerly he also has been very nice in tracing the Blood-Vessels and Nerves that run amongst the Coats has evidently shewn that its Inside is covered with a glandulous Coat whose Glands separate that Mucilage which both preserves the Fibres from being injured by the Aliments which the Stomach receives and concurrs with the Spittle to further the Digestion there performed and has given a very particular Account of all those several Rows of Fibres which compose the musculous Coat To which if we add Steno's Discovery of the Fibres of the musculous Coat of the Gullet that they are spiral in a double Order one ascending the other descending which run contrary Courses and mutually cross each other in every Winding with Dr. Cole's Discovery of the Nature of the Fibres of the Intestines that they also move spirally though not perhaps in a contrary Order from the beginning of the Duodenum to the end of the streight Gut the Anatomy of those parts seems to be almost compleat The great Use of the Stomach and the Guts is to prepare the Chyle and then to transmit it through the Glands of the Mesentery into the Blood this the Ancients knew very well the Manner how it was done they knew not Galen held that the Mesaraick Veins as also those which go from the Stomach to the Liver carry the Chyle thither which by the Warmth of the Liver is put into a Heat whereby the Faeculencies are separated from the more spirituous Parts and by their Weight sink to the Bottom the purer Parts go into the Vena Cava The Dregs which are of two sorts Choler and Melancholy go into several Receptacles the Choler is lodged in the Gall-Bladder and Porus Bilarius Melancholy is carried off by the Spleen The Original of all these Notions was Ignorance of the Anatomy of all these Parts as also of the constant Motion of the Blood through the Lungs and Heart Herophilus who is commended as the ablest Anatomist of Antiquity found out that there were veins dispersed