96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



voices against the delusion, the storm of obloquy and contempt which 

 was showered on them served to show the strength and popularity of 

 the superstition. The heavens were divided, by the most educated 

 men of the time, into houses of life and of death, of riches, marriage, 

 or religion, and the particular planet which chanced to be in any one 

 house at the time, was denominated the lord of the house, in power 

 over the destinies of mankind, unless a greater than he reigned else- 

 where. 



While this firm belief in magic, and this disposition to refer all 

 diseases to the direct interposition of supernatural agencies, continued 

 to prevail, the science of medicine necessarily remained almost sta- 

 tionary, or rather could hardly come into existence. Few ever thought 

 of trying to find out how sorcerers, demons, and planets did their 

 work and the Church terribly punished all who dared to attempt 

 the investigation. As magic a mysterious power which man could 

 not understand, but thoroughly believed in caused diseases, so a 

 kind of magic was trusted to cure them. The efficacy of relics and 

 charms was universally acknowledged. The efforts of physicians 

 were directed to the invention of nostrums and counter-charms not 

 to the investigation of the causes of disease, the careful observa- 

 tion of their phenomena, or the mode of action of the remedies pre- 

 scribed for them., Galen had, indeed, made important discoveries in 

 anatomy in the second century, and Mondino and others had added to 

 them; but their knowledge was rude and imperfect, and their de- 

 ductions vitiated by the most absurd physiological dogmas. When 

 they had discovered a few broad and simple facts in anatomy,, they 

 rested from their labors, well content ; and founded theories, sup- 

 ported by unfounded assumptions, but which became articles of faith, 

 received without question by their successors in the study. Galen, 

 for example, assumed that the arteries carried the purest blood from 

 the left ventricle of the heart, to the higher and more refined organs, 

 the brain and lungs ; while the veins conveyed that of inferior quality 

 from the right ventricle to the grosser organs, the liver and spleen. 

 He chose, moreover, to affirm that the venous blood was not fit for its 

 office, unless some portion of the essence or spirit, and of the arterial 

 blood contained in the left ventricle, were infused into it. Now, these 

 two chambers of the heart, each containing the different quality of 

 blood above mentioned, are separated by a partition, through which 

 there is no aperture whatever. Holes of communication were, how- 

 ever, required by Galen to support his theory, and, therefore, in the 

 true spirit of the time, holes were accordingly seen by him. He 

 squared his facts to suit his theory. And, stranger still, although the 

 heart was frequently examined afterward, so paramount was the au- 

 thority of Galen, that these imaginary holes were seen by a succes- 

 sion of anatomists for fourteen hundred years, until, at last, Vesalius 

 dared to declare that he could not find them. 



