History of the discoveries of the circulation of the blood, of the ganglia and nerves, and of the action of the heart / by Robert Lee.

  • Lee, Robert, 1793-1877.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the discoveries of the circulation of the blood, of the ganglia and nerves, and of the action of the heart / by Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    nately, recalled as it were from death to life. In the twelfth chapter of the Exercitatio Anatoinica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis, Harvey observes, u Nor are we the less to agree with Aristotle in regard to the sove- reignty of the heart, nor are we to inquire whether it receives sense or motion of the brain; whether blood from the liver, whether it be the origin of the veins and of the blood, and more of the same description. They who affirm these propositions against Aristotle,-overlook or do not rightly understand the principal argument, to the effect that the heart is the part which first exists, and that it contains within itself blood, life, sensation, motion, before either the brain or liver were in being, or had appeared distinctly, or at all events before they could perform any function. The heart, ready furnished with its proper organs of motion, like a kind of internal creature, is of a date anterior to the body ; first formed, nature wills that it should afterwards fashion, nourish, preserve, complete the entire animal as its work and dwelling-place. The heart, like the prince in a kingdom, in whose hands lie the chief and the highest authority, rules over all j it is the original and foundation from which all power depends in the animal body. Three years after the death of Harvey, the Royal Society of London was constituted by Charles II. a corporate body, for the promoting of the knowledge of natural things and useful arts by experiments, to the glory of God and the good of mankind. Anatomy and physiology were then considered two of the most impor-