There is one motion, however, which claims a middle place between the voluntary and involuntary; I mean respiration. This action is so far under the command of the will, that it may be suspended, increased, or diminished in strength and frequency: but we can only suspend it for a very short time; and it goes on regularly during sleep, and in general, even when we are awake, without the intervention of the will; its continuation being always necessary, as we have already seen, to support life. The motion of the fluids in the living body is regulated by very different laws, from those which govern the motion of ordinary fluids, that depend upon their gravity and fluidity: these last have a general centre of gravitation to which they incessantly tend. Their motion is from above downwards, when not prevented by any obstacles; and when they meet with obstruction, they either stop till the obstacle is removed, or escape where they find the least resistance. When they have reached the lowest situations, they remain at rest, unless acted upon by some internal impulse, which again puts them in motion. But the motion of the fluids in an animal body, is less uniform, constant, and regular; it takes place upwards as well as downwards, and overcomes numerous obstacles; it carries the blood from the interior parts of the body to the surface, and from the surface back again to the internal parts; it forces it from the left side of the body to the right, and with such rapidity that not a particle of the fluid remains an instant in the same place. The principal organ concerned in the circulation of the blood, is the heart; which is a hollow muscle, of a conical figure, with two cavities, called ventricles; this organ is situated in the thorax or chest; its apex or point is inclined downwards and to the left side, where it is received in a cavity of the left lobe of the lungs. At the basis of the heart on each side are situated two cavities, called auricles, to receive the blood; and these contracting, force the blood into the ventricles, which are two cavities in the heart, separated from each other by a strong muscular partition. The cavity which is situated on the right side of the heart, is called the right ventricle, and that on the left the left ventricle. From the right ventricle of the heart issues a large artery, called the pulmonary artery, which goes to the lungs, and is there divided and subdivided into a vast number of branches, the extremities of which are too small to be visible. These ultimate ramifications unite again into larger branches; these again into branches still larger, and so continually, till at last they form four tubes, called the pulmonary veins, which are inserted into the left auricle of the heart,