Harvey's Views on the Use of the Circulation of the BloodCurtis, John Green
History
Harvey's Views on the Use of the Circulation of the Blood
Curtis, John Green
Blood -- Circulation; Harvey, William, 1578-1657
"If this be so, O followers of Erasistratus, let us omit all
else and consider only what is in controversy. As to the vena
cava, which conveys blood from the liver into the heart, in
which of two ways are its membranes [i.e. the segments of the
tricuspid valve] inserted: do they extend from the interior [of
the ventricle] outward, or contrariwise, from without inward?
But perhaps this is of no great moment!"
The preceding words are immediately followed by the words quoted
by Harvey. The context shows that the phrase "from without inward"
indicates the true insertion of the "membranes" of the tricuspid
valve, according to both Galen and the facts. Harvey himself refers
his quotation from Galen to the treatise "On the Doctrines of
Hippocrates and Plato, Book VI." It is from chapter 6 of that book.
The Latin text quoted by Harvey, and that from which the quotation
in this note has been translated, may be found in the Ninth Juntine
Edition of Galen's works, consisting of Latin translations by
various hands. This edition was published in Venice in 1625, three
years before the publication of Harvey's treatise. The title of the
edition is: Galeni Opera ex Nona Juntarum Editione, etc. Venetiis,
apud Juntas, MDCXXV, Cum privilegiis. The passage quoted in this
note is: "Prima classis," folio 264 D, l. 53-56. Harvey's quotation
is: folio 264 D, l. 56 to folio 264 (verso) E, l. 3. The Greek text
of the passage quoted in this note is to be found in Kn. Vol. V,
550, l. 9-15; Mül. 541, l. 4-9. The Greek text of Harvey's quotation
is in Kn. Vol. V, 550, l. 15 to 551, l. 6; Mül. 541, l. 10 to 542,
l. 2. The Latin rendering printed in the Juntine edition gives the
true meaning of the Greek text, but in a rather lumbering fashion.
[151] The transit of the blood from the right to the left ventricle.
[152] The Galenic work entitled: "Is Blood Naturally Contained in
the Arteries?" Kn. Vol. IV, 703-736.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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