HIS WORKS. xliii 



the old instruments, the authority of Galen and the ancients 

 generally. Parisanus perceived Harvey's views as directly con- 

 travening an hypothesis to which he had formerly committed 

 himself, namely, that the spleen was the organ of sanguifica- 

 tion and the furnisher of nutriment to the heart ; on this 

 ground may Parisanus have been led to enter the lists against 

 the new opinions. But he proved a most flimsy antagonist. 

 Ignorant of some of the commonest points of anatomy, and 

 frequently misinterpreting the writer he combats, writing him- 

 self in a style the most elaborately involved, and consequently 

 obscure, it is frequently difficult even to guess at his mean- 

 ing. Like his countryman of the poet, Signor Gratiano, he 



" Speaks an infinite deal of nothing ; more than any man in all Venice : his 

 reasons are two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day 

 ere you find them ; and when you have them they are not worth the search." 



Had not Dr. Ent, in his Apology for the Circulation, given the 

 name a place on his title-page, Parisanus's opposition would 

 scarcely have merited mention here. 



Nearly at the same time with Parisanus, Caspar Hofmann, 

 the learned and laborious professor of Nuremberg, attracted 

 particular attention, both in his teaching and his writings, as 

 the opponent of the Harveian doctrine. The opposition here is 

 the more remarkable from Hofmann's having shaken himself 

 wholly free from the authority of 'Galen, and, as Slegel says, 

 even admitted the lesser circulation of the blood through the 

 lungs ; but this must have been at a later period of his life, 

 for in his works, up to Harvey's time, the idea he had of the 

 motion of the blood may be gathered from his likening it to 

 a lake or sea agitated by the wind, the veins being the con- 

 duits of the nutrient blood, the arteries of the vital spirits. 

 Hofmann was an adversary whom Harvey held worthy of notice; 

 and accordingly we have seen that our immortal countryman 

 took advantage of the opportunity, whilst attending the Earl 

 of Arundel and his party, to visit Hofmann at Nuremberg, 



