Heart and Blood 41 



connected them with this, the most noble viscus of the 

 body, unless for some most important end;" if, I say, this 

 father of physic admits all these things, and I quote 

 his own words, I do not see how he can deny that 

 the great artery is the very vessel to carry the blood, 

 when it has attained its highest term of perfection, 

 from the heart for distribution to all parts of the body. 

 Or would he perchance still hesitate, like all who have 

 come after him, even to the present hour, because he 

 did not perceive the route by which the blood was 

 transferred from the veins to the arteries, in consequence, 

 as I have already said, of the intimate connexion be- 

 tween the heart and the lungs ? And that this difficulty 

 puzzled anatomists not a little, when in their dissections 

 they found the pulmonary artery and left ventricle full 

 of thick, black, and clotted blood, plainly appears, 

 when they felt themselves compelled to affirm that the 

 blood made its way from the right to the left ventricle 

 by sweating through the septum of the heart. But 

 this I fancy I have already refuted. A new pathway 

 for the blood must therefore be prepared and thrown 

 open, and being once exposed, no further difficulty 

 will, I believe, be experienced by any one in admitting 

 what I have already proposed in regard to the pulse 

 of the heart and arteries, viz. the passage of the blood 

 from the vein-s to the arteries, and its distribution to 

 the whole of the body by means of these vessels. 



