38 CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 



the passage may take place more easily. This, however, 

 is an error ; for the blood is carried by the arterial vein 

 [pulmonary artery] to the lung. ... It is brought back 

 thence together with air by the venal artery [pulmonary 

 vein] to the left ventricle of the heart. This fact no 

 one has hitherto observed or recorded in writing ; yet 

 it may be most readily seen by any one. . . . Wherefore 

 I cannot wonder enough that anatomists have not ob- 

 served a matter so clear and of such importance. For 

 them it suffices that Galen said so. There are some in 

 our time who swear by the opinions of Galen and assert 

 that he should be taken as gospel, and that there is nothing 

 untrue in his writings." The passage seems to be a 

 restatement of the views of his master, Vesalius, com- 

 bined with those of the unfortunate Servetus. Never- 

 theless, it is important as the first widely distributed 

 description of the lesser circulation. Similar views on 

 the pulmonary circulation were expressed by several 

 somewhat later writers of the sixteenth century. None 

 of them, however, show any real advance on the position 

 of Servetus and Columbus. 



The next advance in the knowledge of the circulation 

 was again made at Padua. It was in a sense the outcome 

 of the teaching of Vesalius. The most promising of the 

 pupils of Vesalius had been Gabriel Falloppius, a most 

 gifted and versatile man. Falloppius made important 

 contributions to anatomy and physiology, which, however, 

 do not bear very closely on our subject. He occupied 

 for some years the professorship at Padua that had been 

 held by Vesalius. Falloppius was in turn succeeded by 

 his own most promising pupil, Jerome Fabricius, who 

 was therefore also in the direct Vesalian tradition the 

 grandson, so to speak, of Vesalius. The name Fabricius 

 has been held by a number of men of science. This one, 

 to distinguish him from his numerous namesakes, is 



