(^^63 ) 



hi circulation, it becomes weaker, and, from fo fmalla wound, death 

 mufl; enfue. Moreover, wlien I confider, how often we find a fmuU 

 exulceration or fore, in the hand, finger, or other part of the body, of 

 wliich we caiuiot perhaps trace the caufe, I can eafily conceive, that 

 a fmall exulceration may, by fome accident, happen in the heart, 

 whereby fome of the flelhy particles may be injured, or rendered 

 incapable of performing their fun6tions ; whence the lieart not only 

 languilhes, and becomes feeble, but, at length, may ceafe to mo*'e, 

 whence fudden death enfues : and the Phyfician, not knowing the 

 real caufe, is led to pronounce, according to the common opinion, 

 that the perfon died of an apoplexy. Thefe are, however, no more 

 than my own conie6lures. 



From what I have advanced, it may naturally be concluded, that 

 I Ihall farther lay it down as a certain pofition, that the heart cannot 

 luft'er any wound, without certain and immediate death being tlie 

 conlequence : this, however, is not my opinion, in all cafes whatfo- 

 ever. For, we know, that there are many veins between the flefliy 

 parts in the infide of the heart, which take their courfe from thence, 

 and unite with the blood veflels furrounding it on the outfide ; which 

 blood veflels, are, throughout, and efpecially on the outfide of the heart, 

 covered v.ith fatty particles ; i'o that there maybe inftances, where the 

 very extremity or point of a fword, may penetrate into the heart it- 

 felf, but, being in a part where thofe veins and particles of fat lie, 

 none of the flefhy particles of the heart may be injured, and the vein 

 and fatty particles alone receive the wound, together with the exter- 

 nal membrane furrounding the heart : hence it will follow, that fud- 

 den death may not in fuch a cafe enfue. 



After this, I examined the heart of a hen, in which alfo, not with- 

 out pleafure, I faw the concatenation or linking of the flefliy parts, 

 to be exa61:ly the fame as in the other hearts I have mentioned. 



This, however, I obferved in tlie hen's heart, that, when cutting 



Kk 



