32 Motion of the 



death, it ceases to respond by its proper motion, but 

 seems, as it were, to nod the head, and is so obscurely 

 moved that it appears rather to give signs of motion to 

 the pulsating auricle, than actually to move. The heart, 

 therefore, ceases to pulsate sooner than the auricles, 

 so that the auricles have been said to outlive it, the 

 left ventricle ceasing to pulsate first of all ; then its 

 auricle, next the right ventricle ; and, finally, all the 

 other parts being at rest and dead, as Galen long since 

 observed, the right auricle still continues to beat ; life, 

 therefore, appears to linger longest in the right auricle. 

 Whilst the heart is gradually dying, it is sometimes 

 seen to reply, after two or three contractions of the 

 auricles, roused as it were to action, and making a 

 single pulsation, slowly, unwillingly, and with an effort. 



But this especially is to be noted, that after the 

 heart has ceased to beat, the auricles however still 

 contracting, a finger placed upon the ventricles per- 

 ceives the several pulsations of the auricles, precisely 

 in the same way and for the same reason, as we have 

 said, that the pulses of the ventricles are felt in the 

 arteries, to wit, the distension produced by the jet of 

 blood. And if at this time, the auricles alone pulsating, 

 the point of the heart be cut off with a pair of scissors, 

 you will perceive the blood flowing out upon each 

 -contraction of the auricles. Whence it is manifest 

 how the blood enters the ventricles, not by any attrac- 

 tion or dilatation of the heart, but thrown into them by 

 the pulses of the auricles. 



And here I would observe, that whenever I speak 

 of pulsations as occurring in the auricles or ventricles, 

 I mean contractions : first the auricles contract, and 

 then and subsequently the heart itself contracts. When 

 the auricles contract they are seen to become whiter, 

 -especially where they contain but little blood ; but 

 they are filled as magazines or reservoirs of the blood, 

 which is tending spontaneously and, by the motion 

 of the veins, under pressure towards the centre ; the 



