Harvey's First Note on the Circulation 



This is the right hand page 80 of Harvey's Prelectiones Anatomiat 

 Universalis, his 1616 Lecture Notes, discovered in the British Museum 

 and published in 1886. It reads as follows: 



WH constat per fabricam cordis sanguinem 



per pulmones in Aortam perpetuo 



transferri, as by two clacks of a 



water bellows to rayse water 



constat per ligaturam transitum sanguinis 



ab arterijs ad venas 



vnde A perpetuum sanguinis motum 



in circulo fieri pulsu cordis 



An? hoc gratia Nutritionis 



an magis Conservationis sanguinis 



et Membrorum per Infusionem calidam 



vicissimque sanguis Calefaciens 



membra frigifactum a Corde 



Calefit 



One may freely translate these rough notes: 



VVH demonstrates by the structure of the heart that blood is continually passed 

 through the lungs into the aorta, as by two clacks of a water bellows to raise water. The 

 passage of blood from arteries to veins is shown by means of a ligature. So it is proved 

 that a continual movement of the blood in a circle is caused by the beat of the heart. 

 Is this for the sake of nourishing or the better preservation of the blood and parts of the 

 body by infusion of heat, the blood alternately being cooled, by heating these parts, and 

 warmed, by the heart? 



