70 HERBERT ALBERT RATNER 



circulation admitted, established, the use and utilities of its 

 institution are especially to be sought." ^^ 



Notwithstanding, Harvey makes clear " the principal use 

 and end of the circulation: it is that for which the blood is sent 

 on its perpetual course, and to exert its influence continually 

 in its circuit, to wit, that all parts dependent on the primary 

 innate heat may be retained alive, in their state of vital and 

 vegetative being, and apt to perform their duties; whilst to 

 use the language of physiologists, they are sustained and actu- 

 ated by the inflowing heat and vital spirits." ^® 



The modem reader, of course, will have to understand that 

 it would take some time, and the modem development of the 

 science of chemistry, before this point could have been made 

 in terms of oxygen instead of vital spirits, or amino acids, 

 glucose, and fatty acids instead of natural spirits. In the mean- 

 time he can have the reassurance from Harvey that " There is, 

 in fact, no occasion for searching after spirits foreign to, or 



cius then exemplifies the above distinctions with the eye, in which the crystalline 

 lens has the principal utility, and the other parts of the eye, the cornea, the iris 

 and the rest, are structures useful for the eye's action through the secondary 

 utilities they have for either improving or protecting vision, and concludes: " It 

 is now clear from the foregoing that utility is always related to activity, whether 

 the usefulness of the organ is sought from its action or from other things either 

 consequential or accidental; nor can you inquire into the usefulness of any organ 

 unless its action is first known." (Fabricius, The Formed Fetus, Part 2, The 

 Action and Usefulness (utilitas) of the parts of the fetus, ch. 1, Adelmann trans- 

 lation, ed. cit., p. 276) . 



Harvey's last chapter, which is entitled " The motion and circulation of the blood 

 is confirmed by those things that appear in the heart and are clear from anatomical 

 dissections," can now be seen as an integral part of the anatomical exercise. In 

 the preceding chapters Harvey has established the proper action of the heart, 

 as well as its use, the circulation of the blood. This now permits him to look at the 

 heart so as to determine formally its utilities, i. e., its abilities to serve, in the 

 light of its actions and use. By determining that the formal cause of the heart — 

 its utilities — has a one to one correspondence with its action — the efficient cause 

 of blood circulation — and with its use, the final cause, namely, the circulation of 

 the blood, Harvey can now reflectively confirm the circulation. In this remarkable 

 chapter Harvey identifies the principal utility with the muscular left ventricle and 

 the secondary utilities with valves, braces, etc. 



^® Harvey, Second Exercise to John Riolan, ed. cit., pp. 122-123. 



^^ Harvey, First Exercise to John Riolan, ed. cit., p. 98. 



