88 Motion of the 



or pleasure, hope or fear, is the cause of an agitation 

 whose influence extends to the heart, and there induces 

 change from the natural constitution, in the temperature, 

 the pulse and the rest, which impairing all nutrition in 

 its source and abating the powers at large, it is no 

 wonder that various forms of incurable disease in the 

 extremities and in the trunk are the consequence, 

 inasmuch as in such circumstances the whole body 

 labours under the effects of vitiated nutrition and 

 a want of native heat. 



Moreover, when we see that all animals live through 

 food concocted in their interior, it is imperative that 

 the digestion and distribution be perfect ; and, as a 

 consequence, that there be a place and receptacle where 

 the aliment is perfected and whence it is distributed to 

 the several members. Now this place is the heart, for 

 it is the only organ in the body which contains blood 

 for the general use ; all the others receive it merely for 

 their peculiar or private advantage, just as the heart also 

 has a supply for its own especial behoof in its coronary 

 veins and arteries ; but it is of the store which the heart 

 contains in its auricles and ventricles that I here speak; 

 and then the heart is the only organ which is so 

 situated and constituted that it can distribute the blood 

 in due proportion to the several parts of the body, the 

 quantity sent to each being according to the dimensions 

 of the artery which supplies it, the heart serving as 

 a magazine or fountain ready to meet its demands. 



Further, a certain impulse or force, as well as an 

 impeller or forcer, such as the heart, was required to 

 effect this distribution and motion of the blood ; both 

 because the blood is disposed from slight causes, such 

 as cold, alarm, horror, and the like, to collect in its 

 source, to concentrate like parts to a whole, or the 

 drops of water spilt upon a table to the mass of liquid ; 

 and then because it is forced from the capillary veins 

 into the smaller ramifications, and from these into the 

 larger trunks by the motion of the extremities and the 



