History and Progress of Comparative Anatomy, 151 



the source of that fluid, and even speaks of the blood flowing 

 from it to the veins, and to all parts of the body, he says no- 

 thing of the circular motion of the blood. 



The bloodvessels he represents to be two in number, placed 

 before the vertebral column, the large on the right {(pxifii ^jf^Au) 

 the vena cava, the small on the left, named aorta («o§t«), the 

 first time, I may observe, that this epithet occurs, — both pro- 

 ceeding from the chambers of the heart. He distinguishes the 

 thick, firm and tendinous texture of the aorta, which he repre- 

 sents to be a nervous or tendinous vein {nv^uhs (p>^ifig), from the 

 thin membranous tissue of the vein. In describing the distri- 

 bution of the latter, however, he confounds the vena cava and 

 pulmonary artery ; and, as might be expected, he confounds 

 the ramifications of the former with those of the arterial tubes 

 in general ; and, in short, applies the term veins {<pM(iii) to the 

 distributing tubes proceeding from the heart. The course and 

 distribution of the aorta, which he regards as a small blood- 

 tube, he describes with some accuracy. Though he omits the 

 coeliac, and remarks that no vessel proceeds directly from the 

 aorta to the liver or spleen, he had observed the mesenteric, the 

 renal, two tubes proceeding towards the bladder, evidently the 

 spermatics, and the common iliac arteries. 



The brain he describes as an organ sparingly supplied with 

 blood, but of greater proportional size in man than in any 

 other animal, and larger also in males than in females, a re- 

 mark which is either a very fortunate conjecture, or the result 

 of much observation *. In opposition to the majority of an- 

 cient anatomists, he denied the brain to consist of marrow, 

 because, while the former is cold, the latter is hot, as appears 

 from its adipose and unctuous characters. The spinal chord, 

 however, he allows to be medullary. On the nerves his ideas 

 are indistinct and confused. Making them rise from the heart 

 in the large chamber of which there are nerves {yiv^u) ten- 

 dons, he confounds them with the branches of the aorta, 

 which he denominates a tendinous vein (nv^a^ni ^AsySs). By 

 afterwards saying, that all the articulated bones are connected by 

 nerves, he makes them the same as hgaments, while the property 



«ffftinr^¥ it 'af^tyif ru\t 6i^kumv' U.t^ Zmwv M«fi«V' Lib* il. cap. vii. 



