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
In the inspection made on the fifth day, we observed around the short
vein which proceeds from the angle where the two alternately pulsating
points are situated, something whiter and thicker, like a cloud,
although still transparent, through which the vein just mentioned is
seen obscurely, and as it were through a haze. The same thing I have
occasionally seen in the more forward eggs in the course of the fourth
day. Now this is the rudiment of the body, and from hour to hour it goes
on increasing in compactness and solidity; both surrounding the
afore-named vein, and being appended to it in the guise of a kind of
globule. This globular rudiment far exceeds the coronal portion, as I
shall call it, of the vermicular body; it is triangular in figure, being
obscurely divided into three parts, like so many swelling buds of a
tree. One of these is orbicular and larger than either of the other two;
and it is darkened by most delicate filaments proceeding from the
circumference to the centre; this appears to be the commencement of the
ciliary body, and therefore proclaims that this is the part which is to
undergo transformation into the eye. In its middle the minute pupil,
shining like a bright point, as already stated, is conspicuous; and it
was from this indication especially that I ventured to conjecture that
the whole of the globular mass was the rudiment of the future head, and
this black circle one of the eyes, having the other over against it; for
the two are so situated that they can by no means be seen at once and
together, one always lying over and concealing the other.
The first rudiment of the future body, which we have stated to sprout
around the vein, acquires an oblong and somewhat bent figure, like the
keel of a boat. It is of a mucaginous consistence, like the white mould
that grows upon damp things excluded from the air. The vein to which
this mucor attaches, as I have said, is the vena cava, descending along
the spinal column, as my subsequent observations have satisfied me. And
if you carefully note the order of contraction in the pulsating
vesicles, you may see the one which contracts last impelling its blood
into the root of this vein and distending it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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