The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the authorHarvey, William
Science
The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation -- Early works to 1800; Embryology -- Early works to 1800; Physiology -- Early works to 1800
“He who admits one circulation,” proceeds our author, “cannot repudiate
the other;” and he might, as it appears, have added, “the third.” For
why should the coronary arteries of the heart pulsate, if it were not to
force on the blood by their pulsations? and why should there be coronary
veins, the end and office of all veins being to receive the blood
brought by the arteries, were it not to deliver and discharge the blood
sent into the substance of the heart? In this consideration let it be
remembered that a valve is very commonly found at the orifice of the
coronary vein, as our learned author himself admits,[110] preventing all
ingress, but offering no obstacle to the egress of the blood. It
therefore seems that he cannot do otherwise than admit this third
circulation, who acknowledges a general circulation through the body,
and that the blood also passes through the lungs and the brain.[111]
Nor, indeed, can he deny a similar circulation to every other part of
every other region. The blood flowing in under the influence of the
arterial pulse, and returning by the veins, every particle of the body
has its circulation.
From the words of our learned writer quoted above, consequently, his
opinion may be gathered both of the general circulation, and then of the
circulation through the lungs and the several parts of the body; for he
who admits the first, manifestly cannot refuse to acknowledge the
others. How indeed could he who has repeatedly asserted a circulation
through the general system and the greater vessels, deny a circulation
in the branches continuous with these vessels, or in the several parts
of the second and third regions? as if all the veins, and those he calls
greater circulatory vessels, were not enumerated by every anatomist, and
by himself, as being within the second region of the body. Is it
possible that there can be a circulation which is universal, and which
yet does not extend through every part? Where he denies it, then, he
does so hesitatingly, and vaccillates between negations, giving us mere
words. Where he asserts the circulation, on the contrary, he speaks out
heartily, and gives sufficient reasons, as becomes a philosopher; and
then, when he relies on this opinion in a particular instance, he
delivers himself like an experienced physician and honest man, and, in
opposition to Galen and his favorite Fernelius, advises bloodletting as
the chief remedy in dangerous diseases of the lungs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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