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Letters 



heart, so that the greater part of a pound of water was 

 thrown into the right auricle and ventricle. The result 

 was, that the right ventricle and auricle were enormously 

 distended, but not a drop of water or of blood made 

 its escape through the orifice in the left ventricle. The 

 ligatures having been undone, the same tube was passed 

 into the pulmonary artery, and a tight ligature having 

 been put round it to prevent any reflux into the right 

 ventricle, the water in the bladder was now pushed 

 towards the lungs, upon which a torrent of the fluid, 

 mixed with a quantity of blood, immediately gushed forth 

 from the perforation in the left ventricle ; so that a 

 quantity of water, equal to that which was pressed from 

 the bladder into the lungs at each effort, instantly 

 escaped by the perforation mentioned. You may try 

 this experiment as often as you please ; the result you 

 will still find to be as I have stated it. 



With this one experiment you may easily put an end 

 to all Riolanus's altercations on the matter, to which 

 he, nevertheless, so entirely trusts, that, without 

 adducing so much as a single experiment in support of 

 his views, he has been led to invent a new circulation, 

 and even so far to commit himself as to say that, unless 

 the old doctrine of the circulation l be overturned, his 

 own is inadmissible. We may pardon this distinguished 

 individual for not having sooner discovered a hidden 

 truth ; but that he, so well skilled in anatomy as he is, 

 should obstinately contend against a truth illustrated by 

 the clearest light of reason, this surely is argument of 

 his envy let me not call it by any worse name. But, 

 perhaps, we are still to find an excuse for Riolanus, 

 and to say, that what he has written is not so much of 

 his own motion, as in discharge of the duties of his 

 office, and with a view to stand well with his colleagues. 

 As Dean of the College of Paris, he was bound to see 

 the physic of Galen kept in good repair, and to admit 

 no novelty into the school, without the most careful 



1 i.e. Harvey's Doctrine. 



