18 MOTION OF THE 



the thick, hard, and extremely compact substance of the septum 

 cordis, rather than to take that by the open vas venosum or pul- 

 monary vein, or even through the lax, soft and spongy substance 

 of the lungs at large. Besides, if the blood could permeate the 

 substance of the septum, or could be imbibed from the ventricles, 

 what use were there for the coronary artery and vein, branches 

 of which proceed to the septum itself, to supply it with nourish- 

 ment ? And what is especially worthy of notice is this : if in 

 the foetus, where everything is more lax and soft, nature saw 

 herself reduced to the necessity of bringing the blood from the 

 right into the left side of the heart by the foramen ovale, from 

 the vena cava through the arteria venosa, how should it be 

 likely that in the adult she should pass it so commodiously, and 

 without an effort, through the septum ventriculorum, which has 

 now become denser by age ? 



Andreas Laurentius, 1 resting on the authority of Galen 2 and 

 the experience of Hollerius, asserts and proves that the serum 

 and pus in empyema, absorbed from the cavities of the chest 

 into the pulmonary vein, may be expelled and got rid of with 

 the urine and faeces through the left ventricle of the heart and 

 arteries. He quotes the case of a certain person affected with 

 melancholia, and who suffered from repeated fainting fits, who 

 was relieved from the paroxysms on passing a quantity of turbid, 

 fetid, and acrid urine ; but he died at last, worn out by the dis- 

 ease ; and when the body came to be opened after death, no 

 fluid like that he had micturated was discovered either in the 

 bladder or in the kidneys ; but in the left ventricle of the heart 

 and cavity of the thorax plenty of it was met with ; and then 

 Laurentius boasts that he had predicted the cause of the symp- 

 toms. For my own part, however, I cannot but wonder, since 

 he had divined and predicted that heterogeneous matter could 

 be discharged by the course he indicates, why he could not or 

 would not perceive, and inform us that, in the natural state of 

 things, the blood might be commodiously transferred from the 

 lungs to the left ventricle of the heart by the very same route. 



Since, therefore, from the foregoing considerations and many 

 others to the same effect, it is plain that what has heretofore 

 been said concerning the motion and function of the heart and 



1 Lib. ix, cap. xi, quest. 12. 



2 De Locis Affectis., lib. vi, cap. 7. 



