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
Now let any one make an experiment upon the arm of a man, either
using such a fillet as is employed in blood-letting, or grasping the
limb tightly with his hand, the best subject for it being one who is
lean, and who has large veins, and the best time after exercise, when
the body is warm, the pulse is full, and the blood carried in larger
quantities to the extremities, for all then is more conspicuous; under
such circumstances let a ligature be thrown about the extremity, and
drawn as tightly as can be borne, it will first be perceived that
beyond the ligature, neither in the wrist, nor anywhere else, do the
arteries pulsate, at the same time that immediately above the ligature
the artery begins to rise higher at each diastole, to throb more
violently, and to swell in its vicinity with a kind of tide, as if
it strove to break through and overcome the obstacle to its current;
the artery, here, in short, appears as if it were preternaturally
full. The hand under such circumstances retains its natural colour
and appearance; in the course of time it begins to fall somewhat in
temperature, indeed, but nothing is _drawn_ into it.
After the bandage has been kept on for some short time in this way, let
it be slackened a little, brought to that state or term of middling
tightness which is used in bleeding, and it will be seen that the whole
hand and arm will instantly become deeply suffused and distended, and
the veins show themselves tumid and knotted; after ten or fifteen
pulses of the artery, the hand will be perceived excessively distended,
injected, gorged with blood, _drawn_, as it is said, by this middling
ligature, without pain, or heat, or any horror of a vacuum, or any
other cause yet indicated.
If the finger be applied over the artery as it is pulsating by the edge
of the fillet, at the moment of slackening it, the blood will be felt
to glide through, as it were, underneath the finger; and he, too, upon
whose arm the experiment is made, when the ligature is slackened, is
distinctly conscious of a sensation of warmth, and of something, viz.
a stream of blood, suddenly making its way along the course of the
vessels and diffusing itself through the hand, which at the same time
begins to feel hot, and becomes distended.
As we had noted, in connexion with the tight ligature, that the artery
above the bandage was distended and pulsated, not below it, so, in the
case of the moderately tight bandage, on the contrary, do we find that
the veins below, never above, the fillet, swell, and become dilated,
whilst the arteries shrink; and such is the degree of distension of
the veins here, that it is only very strong pressure that will force
the blood beyond the fillet, and cause any of the veins in the upper
part of the arm to rise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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