AN ANATOMICAL STUDY ON THE 



were dilated at its base or origin. After awhile when 

 the fetus is outlined and the body begins to be more 

 substantial, this vesicle becomes more fleshy and 

 stronger, and its constitution changing, it turns into 

 the auricles. From these the bulk of the heart begins 

 to sprout, although as yet it has no function. When 

 the fetus is really developed, with bones separated 

 from f^esh, when the body is perfected and has 

 motion, then the heart actually beats and, as I said, 

 pumps blood by both ventricles from the vena cava 

 to the arteries. 



Thus divine Nature making nothing in vain, neither 

 gives a heart to an animal where it is not needed, nor 

 makes one before it can be used. By the same steps 

 in the development of every animal, passing through 

 the structural stages, I might say, of Qggy worm, and 

 fetus, it obtains perfection in each. These points are 

 confirmed elsewhere by many observations on the 

 formation of the fetus.^^ 



Hippocrates, in the book De Corde^ did not call the 

 heart a muscle without good reason. ^^ Its action or 



^ Another paragraph stressing the "Bridgewater treatise" idea. 

 Harvey was probably engaged, while this was published, on his other 

 great treatise, De generatione animalium, which appeared at the 

 solicitation and under the direction of Dr. George Ent, in London 

 in 1651. This is a remarkable volume, not yet properly annotated 

 or appreciated, a mine of observation and interpretation, and a com- 

 plete commentary on the ideas of Aristotle and Fabricius on fetal 

 development. As a sustained intellectual effort it surpasses the pres- 

 ent volume, and with the development of sexual physiology may be 

 recognized as a very significant contribution. 



" This little tract of about 800 words (Trepi Kaphii^s) is the best 

 anatomical work of the Hippocratic Collection. Written about 



[1261 



