340 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1955 



been said to have died of "a broken heart." Cruelty has been blamed 

 on a "hard heart" or even "no heart at all," while kindness has been 

 said to be due to a "soft heart" or a "very large heart." 



As early as 1700 B. C. an Egyptian surgical papyrus described the 

 heart as a central organ in tlie thorax from which vessels were dis- 

 tributed to various parts of the body. Among the ancient doctrines 

 was the belief, ascribed to Hippocrates of Cos (460-370 B. C), that 

 the heart was not subject to disease, because of its compact and mas- 

 sive composition. In an anatomic treatise on the heart of 400 B. C. 

 were included descriptions of the valves of the heart, the ventricles, 

 and the great vessels. The author of the treatise erroneously cir- 

 culated the belief, which was widespread among the ancients, that 

 the arteries were filled with air while the veins contained blood. 



Galen of Pergamon (A. D. 138-201) described a concept of the heart 

 and the blood vessels which was universally accepted for nearly four- 

 teen centuries. Modern authorities disagree in the interpretation of 

 Galen's concepts (Fleming, 1955), but there is general agreement that 

 Galen thought that at least a portion of the blood from the left side 

 of the heart reached the right side by means of "invisible pores" in 

 the septum, the wall separating the right and left auricles and 

 ventricles. 



The rapid development of anatomical knowledge during the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries ultimately led to the present-day 

 understanding of the functions of the heart (Willius and Dry, 1948). 

 As early as the thirteenth century, the Arabian physician Ibn an-Naf is 

 suggested the general scheme of pulmonary circulation and denied 

 the existence of the "invisible pores" in the septum as taught by Galen. 

 Again in 1553 Michael Servetus (1509-1553) discussed the existence 

 of the pulmonary circulation; and Andrea Cesalpino (1524r-1603) 

 postulated the general circulation of the blood. None of these con- 

 tributions, however, exerted a pronounced influence in correcting the 

 Galenic theory, and it was not until William Harvey (1578-1657) 

 published his famous treatise "De Motu Cordis" in 1628 that the 

 theory of the circulation of blood was generally accepted. Harvey 

 had studied at Padua where the chair of anatomy was held successively 

 by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), who also denied the presence of the 

 "invisible pores"; Matteo Realdo Colombo (1516?-1559), who con- 

 ceived the pulmonary circulation in part; Gabriello Fallopio (1523- 

 1562), who demonstrated the coronary vessels by dissection; and 

 Hieronymus Fabricius (1637-1619), who described the valves of the 

 veins. It was after he returned to England that Harvey continued 

 his studies, and in 1628 finally published his famous treatise. The 

 crux of Harvey's concept was that the actual quantity of blood as 

 determined by measurement made it impossible for the blood to foUow 

 any other course than to return to the heart by way of the venous sys- 



