MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD 



to the aorta as the vessel for distributing blood from 

 the heart to the rest of the body? Had he said this 

 transmits spirits and not blood, he would have 

 sufficiently answered Erasistratus, who thought the 

 arteries contained spirits alone. But he would have 

 thus contradicted himself, and basely denied what 

 he had strongly argued in his writings against this 

 same Erasistratus, in showing by many potent reasons 

 and by experiment that the arteries contain blood 

 and not spirits. 



The great man often agrees in this connection that 

 '*all arteries arise from the aorta ^ and this from the heart, 

 all normally containing and carrying blood.'' He says 

 further, ''The three semilunar valves , placed at the 

 opening of the aorta, prevent the reflux of blood into the 

 heart. Nature would never have connected them with 

 such an important organ unless for some great purpose.'' 

 If the ''Prince of Physicians" admits all this, as 

 quoted in his very words from the book cited, I do 

 not see how he can deny that the aorta is the very 

 vessel to carry the blood, properly perfected, from 

 the heart to the whole body. Does he hesitate, as 

 all after him to the present, because he could not see 

 on account of the close connection between heart and 

 lungs, a way by which blood might go from veins to 

 arteries ? 



This matter greatly bothered the anatomists. 

 Always finding in dissection the pulmonary vein^ 



' This is one of the few places where a sHp was made by Robert 

 Willis, the great Sydenham Society translator of Harvey (1847). He 



I 51] 



