Introduction 



IN DISCUSSING the movements and functions 

 of the heart and arteries, we should first con- 

 sider what others have said on these matters, and 

 what the common and traditional viewpoint is. 

 Then by anatomical study, repeated experiment, 

 and careful observation, we may confirm what is 

 correctly stated, but what is false make right. 



Nearly all anatomists, physicians, and philos- 

 ophers up to now have thought with Galen that the 

 pulse has the same function as respiration, diflfering 

 only in one respect, the former arising from an 

 animal, the latter a vital faculty, but from the 

 standpoint of function or movement behaving alike. 

 Thus one finds, as in the recent book on Respiration 

 by Hieronymus Fabricius of Aquapendente, that 

 since the pulsation of the heart and arteries is not 

 sufficient for the aeration and cooling of the blood, 

 Nature has placed the lungs around the heart. 

 So it seems that whatever has been said prior to 

 this about the systole and diastole of the heart and 

 arteries has been proposed with special reference 

 to the lungs. 



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