AN ANATOMICAL STUDY ON THE 



ever the source is damaged, nothing, as Aristotle 

 says {De Pari. Animal. y lib. j), can help it or any- 

 thing depending on it. Perhaps, by the way, this 

 is the reason why anguish, love, jealousy, worry, 

 and similar mental states are accompanied by emacia- 

 tion, wasting away, and other bodily changes pre- 

 disposing to disease and consumption in men. A 

 mental disturbance provoking pain, excessive joy, 

 hope or anxiety extends to the heart, where it 

 affects its temper, and rate, impairing general 

 nutrition and vigor. It is no wonder many serious 

 diseases thus gain access to the body, when it is 

 suffering from faulty nourishment and lack of 

 normal warmth. 



Further, since all animals live by food digested 

 internally, the distribution of this concoction must 

 be achieved, and hence there must be a place where 

 the aliment is perfected and from which it is ap- 

 portioned to the separate members. This place is 

 the heart. It is the only organ containing blood 



very uncertain. Harvey was apparently quite interested in the mind" 

 body problem as may also be noted in his De generatione, 1651. How 

 was it that he failed to pick up valvular lesions of the heart in his 

 many autopsies? Certainly to so keen an observer the effects of an 

 insufficient or stenotic value would have been obvious, in the light 

 of his discovery. But these significant aspects of cardiac pathology 

 had to wait a couple more centuries to be appreciated. The ancient 

 Greeks commented upon the obvious effects of strong emotion on 

 cardiac action. This may have been one reason why Empedocles 

 and Aristotle made the heart the abiding place of thought. Even the 

 ancient Jewish scribe wrote that "every imagination of the thoughts of 

 his heart was only evil" (Genesis 6:$). 



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