MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD 



and loses its spirit, as in death. Thus it must come 

 back to its source and origin to take up heat or 

 spirit or whatever else it needs to be refreshened. 



We often see the extremities so chilled by a cold 

 atmosphere that the hands, nose, and cheeks seem 

 deathly blue. The blood in them, stagnating as in 

 the lower parts of a corpse, become livid. The 

 limbs are sluggish and are moved with difficulty, 

 so that they seem almost deprived of life. In no 

 other way can they recover heat, color, and life 

 so completely and especially so quickly as by a 

 freshly driven flow of heat from the source. But 

 how can they, when heat and life are almost gone, 

 draw anything into them? How can they, filled 

 with congealed stagnant blood, admit fresh blood 

 and nourishment, unless they give up their old con- 

 tents? Thus the heart really is the center where 

 this exhausted blood recovers life and heat, as 

 Aristotle says {De Respirat., lib. 2). New blood 

 imbued with heat and spirit by it and sent out 

 through the arteries, forces onwards the chilled 

 and stagnant stuff, and the failing warmth and 

 vitality is restored in all parts of the body. 



Hence as long as the heart is uninjured, life and 

 health can be restored to the body generally, but if 

 it is exhausted or harmed by any severe affliction, 

 the whole body must suffer and be injured.^ When- 



* This sentence is the one clear note in a chapter badly fogged 

 by speculations based on the traditional natural philosophy. Note 

 the rather weak illustration from a field in which the footing is still 



I 105] 



