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
In some of the bloodless[32] and colder animals, further, as in
snails, whelks, shrimps, and shell-fish, there is a part which
pulsates--a kind of vesicle or auricle without a heart--slowly indeed,
and not to be perceived save in the warmer season of the year. In these
creatures this part is so contrived that it shall pulsate, as there is
here a necessity for some impulse to distribute the nutritive fluid,
by reason of the variety of organic parts, or of the density of the
substance; but the pulsations occur unfrequently, and sometimes in
consequence of the cold not at all, an arrangement the best adapted
to them as being of a doubtful nature, so that sometimes they appear
to live, sometimes to die; sometimes they show the vitality of an
animal, sometimes of a vegetable. This seems also to be the case with
the insects which conceal themselves in winter, and lie, as it were,
defunct, or merely manifesting a kind of vegetative existence. But
whether the same thing happens in the case of certain animals that have
red blood, such as frogs, tortoises, serpents, swallows, may be made a
question without any kind of impropriety.
[32] [i.e. Not having red blood.]
In all the larger and warmer, because [red-]blooded animals, there
was need of an impeller of the nutritive fluid, and that perchance
possessing a considerable amount of power. In fishes, serpents,
lizards, tortoises, frogs, and others of the same kind there is a heart
present, furnished with both an auricle and a ventricle, whence it is
perfectly true, as Aristotle has observed,[33] that no [red-]blooded
animal is without a heart, by the impelling power of which the
nutritive fluid is forced, both with greater vigour and rapidity to a
greater distance; it is not merely agitated by an auricle as it is in
lower forms. And then in regard to animals that are yet larger, warmer,
and more perfect, as they abound in blood, which is ever hotter and
more spirituous, and possess bodies of greater size and consistency,
they require a larger, stronger, and more fleshy heart, in order
that the nutritive fluid may be propelled with yet greater force and
celerity. And further, inasmuch as the more perfect animals require a
still more perfect nutrition, and a larger supply of native heat, in
order that the aliment may be thoroughly concocted and acquire the last
degree of perfection, they required both lungs and a second ventricle,
which should force the nutritive fluid through them.
[33] De Part. Animal. lib. iii.
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