HIS WORKS. Ixi 



Csesalpinus speaks of the swelling of the veins between the 

 circle of pressure and the extremities of the vessels, when a 

 ligature is thrown round a limb ; and he even goes so far as 

 to state that the common opinion which admitted a progressive 

 motion i. e. a motion from trunks to branches of the blood 

 in the veins was erroneous. Did we go no farther we should 

 be led to conclude, as in Columbus's case, that Csesalpinus 

 believed in the continuous movement of the blood in the veins 

 in one direction only ; and, as he has already spoken of the 

 exit of the blood from the left ventricle, and of its reception 

 by the aorta for general distribution, it might forthwith be 

 inferred that, possessed of the essential elements of the greater 

 circulation, he must, as matter of course, have been familiar with 

 this as an ultimate result. And such an inference has indeed 

 been drawn for him by high authority ; but Csesalpinus 

 came not himself to any such conclusion ; it was arrived at by 

 others in his behalf, and after the lapse of almost a century 

 from the date of his first publication. When we find Csesal- 

 pinus, in other and closely connected "passages of his writings, 

 singing the old cuckoo note about a flux and reflux of the 

 blood in the veins, and even using the accredited word Euripus 

 to express his idea of its tide-like nature ; when we further 

 perceive that he was ignorant of the existence of the valves of 

 the veins, and finally arrive at his explanation of the cause of the 

 swelling which takes place in the veins of an extremity beyond 

 a ligature, the cause with him consisting in an effort of the 

 blood to get back to the focus or centre, lest, through the 

 compression of the veins, it should be cut off and suffocated, 

 we not only feel that we were warranted in entertaining a 

 wholesome scepticism of the conclusion come to by the ad- 

 mirers of Csesalpinus in regard to his knowledge of a circu- 

 lation of the blood ; but waxing in our infidelity as we become 

 farther acquainted with his thoughts on .the constitution of 



