AN ANATOMICAL STUDY ON THE 



left ventricle by the foramen ovale, from the vena 

 cava through the pulmonary vein, how is it likely 

 in the adult to pass so plentiously and with no effort 

 through the cardiac septum, now denser with age? 

 On the authority of Galen {de loc. affect, lib. (5, 

 cap. 7), and the experience of Hollerius, Andreas 

 Lauren tius {lib. p, cap. 11, questione 12) asserts 

 that the serum and pus in empyema, absorbed 

 from the thoracic cavity into the pulmonary vein, 

 can be eliminated through the left ventricle of the 

 heart and the arteries in the urine and feces. As 

 evidence he cites a certain case of melancholy, who 

 suffering from fainting spells, was relieved from 

 the seizures by voiding some turbid and fetid urine. 

 Worn out by the disease he finally died. On opening 

 the body none of the material he excreted was found 

 in the bladder or kidneys- In the left heart, how- 

 ever, and in the thoracic cavity, there was much of 

 it, and Laurentius boasts he predicted the cause of 

 the symptoms. I wonder, since he predicted that 

 such conglomerate material was evacuated as in- 

 dicated,^** why he could not, or would not discern 

 that the blood is naturally carried from the lungs 

 to the left ventricle in the same way. 



From these and many other considerations it is 

 clear that what has so far been said on the movement 



^*' How much of this is sarcasm against the pathology? Jacob 

 Hollerius lived between 1498 and 1562, Andreas Laurentius (1550- 

 1609) migrated from Montpellier to Paris, and although physician to 

 Henry IV, was considered an ignorant man. 



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