Volume 2

The anatomy of the human body.

  • Bell, John, 1763-1820.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of the human body. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    upper part of the cheft, and liesoverthe carotid arteries. The lower vena cava, or cava ascendens, brings in like manner all the blood from the belly and lower parts of the body by two great branches. One, mark- ed (c),—is the great vein which lies in the belly along the left fide of the fpine, and brings the blood from the legs, the pelvis, and parts of generation, the kid- neys, &-c. •, it is named the vena cava abdominalis, becaufe of its lying in the abdomen. Another, marked (d d a),—arifes in three or four great branches from the liver ; it is named the branches of the vena cava in the liver, or the vena cava hepatic a ; and thefe two make up the lower cava; and the lower and the upper cavas now join themfelves at (e)—to form the right finus of the heart. i. The right sinus of the heart, marked (c), is of confiderable extent; it is juft the gradual dilatation of the two veins forming the auricle or refervoir, which is inceffantly to fupply the heart; the veins grow ftronger as they approach the finus, and the finus ft ill ftronger as it approaches the auricle or notched and pendulous part (/), and the auricle again approaches in its nature to the ventricle of the heart; for it is crofTed with very ftrong mufcular fibres, which make very deep rifings and furrows upon its inner part. To fay that thefe veins, or the finus which they •form, are not mufcular, merely becaufe they are not red nor flefhy, is very ignorant; for the ureters, urethra, ar- teries, inteftines, the iris, and many other parts of the human body, are, at the fame time, perfectly mufcular and perfectly pale ; and the heart of a fifh is as trans- parent as a bubble of water, and yet is fo irritable, that