302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



world any idea of the circulation of the blood through the entire body. 

 He pointed out the familiar fact that the veins swell below and not 

 above the bandage tied around a limb, which demonstrated that veins 

 return the blood to the heart and not toward the external parts of the 

 body. He also says, " The blood conducted to the heart by the veins 

 receives there its jjerfection, and, this perfection acquired, it is carried 

 by the arteries to all parts of the body." 



Certainly no man can describe the general circulation more con- 

 cisely or better than this. 



Thus it appears in evidence that, over half a century before Har- 

 vey's discovery, Andreas Coesalpinus lifted the veil Avhich concealed 

 the mysteries of Nature, suflSciently to obtain quite a clear under- 

 standing of both the lesser and the greater circulation of the blood. 



His countrymen are determined to proclaim his priority, and con- 

 test the claims of Harvey for the right to wear the laurels, as will 

 appear from the following extract taken from a recent medical 

 journal : ^ 



" A monument in honor of Andrea Cesalpino was unveiled in the University 

 of Eome, October 80, 1876, with imposing ceremonies. The Italians claim 

 for Cesalpino the merit of having discovered the circulation of the blood more 

 than fifty years prior to Harvey's discovery. Dr. Giulio Ceradini, Professor of 

 Physiology in the University of Genoa, seems to have been the orator of the 

 day, and he recommends that over the entrance of the Pisa school, where Ce- 

 salpino first taught his discovery, there be placed the following inscription: 

 ' Andrea Cesalpino, of Arezzo, Lecturer on Medicine in the University of Pisa, 

 after the correction of Galen's errors as to the function of the liver and the 

 veins, discovered the circulation of the blood through the whole body, which 

 circulation he made manifest by vivisections after ligatures had been applied to 

 the veins, and which in his " Quistioni Peripatetiche " and " Quistioni Mediche," 

 pubhshed in 1569 or 1593, using the word " circulation " itself, he fully described. 

 Ill-advised was the English Harvey, who, in 1628, dared to arrogate to himself 

 the discovery of this mighty truth.' " 



HiERONYMus Fabeicius ab Aquapendente (1537-1603). Jerome 

 Fabricius was very celebrated in his day. The republic of Venice 

 settled upon him a yearly stipend of a thousand crowns in gold, and 

 honored him with a statue and a golden chain ; but his immortal honor 

 consists in having discovered tlie valves of the veins, the anatomical 

 proof of the circulation, and in having been the teacher of Harvey. 



He discovered the valves of the veins in 1574. He saw that they 

 open toward the heart, and that the blood could only move in that 

 direction, the reverse of what takes place in the arteries, which have 

 no valves. Fabricius saw the fact, but did not understand the proof 

 it furnished that the blood moved in a continuous circuit. 



The March and April numbers of the American reprint of the 

 London Lancet, of 1877, contain two little articles, by Sampson 



' New York Medical Journal, December, 1876, p. 667. 



