Heart and Blood 63 



heart not ceasing to act at the same precise moment as 

 the lungs, but surviving them and continuing to pulsate 

 for a time, the left ventricle and arteries go on dis- 

 tributing their blood to the body at large and sending 

 it into the veins ; receiving none from the lungs, 

 however, they are soon exhausted and left, as it were, 

 empty. But even this fact confirms our views, in no 

 trifling manner, seeing that it can be ascribed to no 

 other than the cause we have just assumed. 



Moreover it appears from this that the more frequently 

 or forcibly the arteries pulsate, the more speedily will 

 the body be exhausted in an hemorrhagy. Hence, 

 also, it happens, that in fainting fits and in states of 

 alarm, when the heart beats more languidly and 

 with less force, hemorrhages are diminished or 

 arrested. 



Still further, it is from this that after death, when 

 the heart has ceased to beat, it is impossible by dividing 

 either the jugular or femoral veins and arteries, by any 

 effort to force out more than one half of the whole mass 

 of the blood. Neither could the butcher, did he 

 neglect to cut the throat of the ox which he has knocked 

 on the head and stunned, until the heart had ceased 

 beating, ever bleed the carcass effectually. 



Finally, we are now in a condition to suspect where- 

 fore it is that no one has yet said anything to the 

 purpose upon the anastomosis of the veins and arteries, 

 either as to where or how it is effected, or for what 

 purpose. I now enter upon the investigation of the 

 subject. 



