An anatomical disquisition on the motion of the heart & blood in animalsHarvey, William
Science
An anatomical disquisition on the motion of the heart & blood in animals
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation
I have also observed, that almost all animals have truly a heart, not
the larger creatures only, and those that have red blood, but the
smaller, and [seemingly] bloodless ones also, such as slugs, snails,
scallops, shrimps, crabs, crayfish, and many others; nay, even in
wasps, hornets, and flies, I have, with the aid of a magnifying glass,
and at the upper part of what is called the tail, both seen the heart
pulsating myself, and shown it to many others.
But in the exsanguine tribes the heart pulsates sluggishly and
deliberately, contracting slowly as in animals that are moribund, a
fact that may readily be seen in the snail, whose heart will be found
at the bottom of that orifice in the right side of the body which is
seen to be opened and shut in the course of respiration, and whence
saliva is discharged, the incision being made in the upper aspect of
the body, near the part which corresponds to the liver.
This, however, is to be observed: that in winter and the colder season,
exsanguine animals, such as the snail, show no pulsations; they seem
rather to live after the manner of vegetables, or of those other
productions which are therefore designated plant-animals.
It is also to be noted that all animals which have a heart, have
also auricles, or something analogous to auricles; and further, that
wherever the heart has a double ventricle there are always two auricles
present, but not otherwise. If you turn to the production of the
chick in ovo, however, you will find at first no more than a vesicle
or auricle, or pulsating drop of blood; it is only by and by, when the
development has made some progress, that the heart is fashioned: even
so in certain animals not destined to attain to the highest perfection
in their organization, such as bees, wasps, snails, shrimps, crayfish,
&c., we only find a certain pulsating vesicle, like a sort of red or
white palpitating point, as the beginning or principle of their life.
We have a small shrimp in these countries, which is taken in the Thames
and in the sea, the whole of whose body is transparent; this creature,
placed in a little water, has frequently afforded myself and particular
friends an opportunity of observing the motions of the heart with the
greatest distinctness, the external parts of the body presenting no
obstacle to our view, but the heart being perceived as though it had
been seen through a window.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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