AN ANATOMICAL STUDY ON THE 



after death, and whether we may say that life begins 

 with a cardiac palpitation is doubtful.^ The seminal 

 fluids or prolific spirit, of all animals, as Aristotle 

 noted, goes forth with a bound, as if alive. Nature 

 in death turns back, retracing her steps, as Aristotle 

 says (De Motu Animal., Cap. 8), and comes again 

 to the place from which she started. In the genera- 

 tion of life, what is not animal develops to animal, 

 a non-entity to an entity, and by retrogression in 

 corruption returns from an entity to a non-entity. 

 So in animals what is made last dies first, what first 

 dies last. 



I have observed that there is a heart in almost 

 all animals, not only in the larger ones with blood, 

 as Aristotle claims, but in the smaller bloodless 

 ones also, as snails, slugs, crabs, shrimps, and many 

 others. Even in wasps, hornets, and flies, have I 

 seen with a lens a beating heart at the upper part of 



" One must admire the intellectual courage of Harvey in this sort 

 of speculation. Aristotelian in the philosophical aspects of his work, 

 Harvey is not here specifically attempting to locate the anatomical 

 seat of the soul, although that is implied. His demonstration really 

 stopped this vain search (H. M. Brown, Annals of Medical History, 



5: I, 1923). 



Note through here not only the remarkable embryological observa- 

 tions (later developed in his Exercitationes de generatione animalium, 

 1651), but also the extraordinary remarks on invertebrate anatomy and 

 physiology. These are the first of any significance since Aristotle, of 

 whom surely Harvey was the first real disciple. Both P. Belon (1517- 

 1564) and G. Rondelet (i 509-1 566) — Rabelais* "Rondibilis," wrote 

 valuable texts on fishes, 1551 and 1554, but they did not discuss lower 

 forms. In the last paragraph of this Chapter, one may sense the wonder 

 and awe Harvey must have felt as he pondered on what he saw. 



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