Proceedings of the Ohio State Academy of Science 439 



out doubt Harvey was the first to describe tlie circulation in 

 its completeness. It will be noted later in this paper how 

 much they knew of the structure of the organs of circulation 

 and how little they understood their workings and what it all 

 meant, but of course all of these discussions had their bear- 

 ing and in the total makeup they must all have had their in- 

 fluence. 



In the time of Homer the blood was known to circulate 

 but the crudeness and the indefiniteness of the knowledge of 

 the Greeks was very evident. To them the blood was con- 

 tained in certain vessels and the body was permeated with 

 another set of vessels which they called arteries because they 

 carried air. They also knew that the heart was a hollow, 

 muscular organ. The notion of the Greeks was not to be won- 

 dered at for their great respect for the dead rendered human 

 dissection impossible. The little anatomical knowledge of the 

 times had to be gained from the rapid observation of the parts 

 of animals ofifered for sacrifice. Even Aristotle, whose anat- 

 omical knowledge was far in advance of the more ancient 

 Greeks, made very little addition to the knowledge of the 

 vascular system. 



A great change was destined to be made soon, for Alex- 

 ander was to conquer Egypt in the third century B. C., estab- 

 lish the Macedonian kings, and build the city of Alexandria 

 with its great university, museums, and library. This was to 

 be the center of learning of all kinds and especially the 

 sciences, above all the study of medicine. Herophilus and 

 Erasistratus were among the noted names from the medical 

 school at Alexandria. In this school human dissection was 

 common, so common that even the kings were known to at- 

 tend the lectures and the demonstrations in the dissecting 

 rooms. The foundation for the real knowledge of the cir- 

 culation was laid here. 



Her()j)hilus demonstrated the relation of the beat of the 

 heart to that of the arteries and that the beat of the heart was 



