CHAPTER IV THE CIRCULATION AND THE ARISTOTELIAN PRIMACY OF THE HEART It has been stated already that the first announcement of the circulation is to be found in Harvey's lecture notes. The following is the text of the memorable passage in question, which I have translated from Harvey's Latin. He says:-- "It is proved by the structure of the heart that the blood is perpetually transferred through the lungs into the aorta, as by two clacks of a water-bellows to rayse water. It is proved by the ligature that there is a transit of the blood from the arteries to the veins; whereby it is demonstrated that a perpetual movement of the blood in a circle is brought about by the beat of the heart. Is this for the sake of nutrition, or of the better preservation of the blood and members by infusion of heat, the blood in turn being cooled by heating the members and heated by the heart?"[106] The words "as by two clacks of a water-bellows to rayse water" are Harvey's own racy English, embedded in his Latin text. The "ligature" is the flat band which is tied about the upper arm when bleeding from a vein is to be practised at the bend of the elbow. The Hippocratic physicians called this band a "_taenia_,"[107] and even in their day it was known to hasten the flow of blood from the opened vein when applied as above stated, but yet to check the flow if tied too tight. This clinical observation had awaited a rational explanation for more than nineteen centuries.[108] [Illustration: Page 80, right, of William Harvey's _Prelectiones Anatomiæ Universalis_, or Lecture Notes of 1616. The passage contains the first recorded mention of the movement of the blood in a circle.] [Illustration: WH constat per fabricam cordis sanguinem per pulmones in Aortam perpetuo transferri, as by two clacks of a water bellows to rayse water constat per ligaturam transitum sanguinis ab arterijs ad venas vnde Δ perpetuum sanguinis motum in circulo fieri pulsu cordis An? hoc gratia Nutritionis an magis Conservationis sanguinis et Membrorum per Infusionem calidam vicissimque sanguis Calefaciens membra frigifactum a Corde Calefit Transcript of the preceding page.]