Harvey, William, 1578-1657; Physicians -- England -- Biography
"I have also observed the first rudiments of the chick in the course
of the fourth or fifth day of the incubation, in the guise of a little
cloud, the shell having been removed and the egg immersed in clear,
tepid water. In the midst of the cloudlet in question there was a
bloody point so small that it disappeared during the contraction and
escaped the sight, but in the relaxation it reappeared again red and
like the point of a pin."
Harvey formulates in his fifth chapter the conclusions to which he had
been led about the movement, action, and use of the heart. His results
appear to be absolutely correct by the light of our present knowledge,
and they show how much can be done by a careful observer, even though
he be unassisted by any instrument of precision.
"First of all the auricle contracts, and in the course of its
contraction forces the blood (which it contains in ample quantity as
the head of the veins, the storehouse and cistern of the blood) into
the ventricle which, being filled, the heart raises itself
straightway, makes all its fibres tense, contracts the ventricles and
performs a beat, by which beat it immediately sends the blood supplied
to it by the auricle into the arteries. The right ventricle sends its
charge into the lungs by the vessel which is called the vena arteriosa
[pulmonary artery], but which in structure and function and all other
respects is an artery. The left ventricle sends its charge into the
aorta and through this by the arteries to the body at large.
"These two movements, one of the ventricles, the other of the
auricles, take place consecutively, but in such a manner that there is
a kind of harmony or rhythm preserved between them, the two concurring
in such wise that but one movement is apparent, especially in the
warmer blooded animals in which the movements in question are rapid.
Nor is this for any other reason than it is in a piece of machinery in
which, though one wheel gives movement to another, yet all the wheels
seem to move simultaneously; or in that mechanical contrivance which
is adapted to firearms, where the trigger being touched, down comes
the flint, strikes against the wheel, produces a spark, which falling
among the powder, ignites it, upon which the flame extends, enters the
barrel, causes the explosion, propels the ball, and the mark is
attained--all of which incidents by reason of the celerity with which
they happen, seem to take place in the twinkling of an eye.... Even so
does it come to pass with the movements and action of the heart....
Whether or not the heart besides propelling the blood, giving it
movement locally and distributing it to the body, adds anything else
to it--heat, spirit, perfection--must be inquired into by and by, and
decided upon other grounds. So much may suffice at this time, when it
is shown that by the action of the heart the blood is transfused
through the ventricles from the veins to the arteries and is
distributed by them to all parts of the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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