CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 101 



be remembered that a valve is very commonly found at the 

 orifice of the coronary vein, as our learned author himself ad- 

 mits, 1 preventing all ingress, but offering no obstacle to the 

 egress of the blood. It therefore seems that he cannot do 

 otherwise than admit this third circulation, who acknowledges 

 a general circulation through the body, and that the blood also 

 passes through the lungs and the brain. 2 Nor, indeed, can he 

 deny a similar circulation to every other part of every other 

 region. The blood flowing in under the influence of the arte- 

 rial pulse, and returning by the veins, every particle of the 

 body has its circulation. 



From the words of our learned writer quoted above, conse- 

 quently, his opinion may be gathered both of the general cir- 

 culation, and then of the circulation through the lungs and the 

 several parts of the body ; for he who admits the first, manifestly 

 cannot refuse to acknowledge the others. How indeed could 

 he who has repeatedly asserted a circulation through the gene- 

 ral system and the greater vessels, deny a circulation in the 

 branches continuous with these vessels, or in the several parts 

 of the second and third regions ? as if all the veins, and those 

 he calls greater circulatory vessels, were not enumerated by 

 every anatomist, and by himself, as being within the second 

 region of the body. Is it possible that there can be a circula- 

 tion which is universal, and which yet does not extend through 

 every part ? Where he denies it, then, he does so hesitatingly, 

 and vaccillates between negations, giving us mere words. Where 

 he asserts the circulation, on the contrary, he speaks out heartily, 

 and gives sufficient reasons, as becomes a philosopher ; and then, 

 when he relies on this opinion in a particular instance, he de- 

 livers himself like an experienced physician and honest man, and, 

 in opposition to Galen and his favorite Fernelius, advises blood- 

 letting as the chief remedy in dangerous diseases of the lungs. 



No learned man and Christian, having doubts in such a case, 

 would have recommended his experience to posterity, to the 

 imminent risk, and even loss of human life ; neither would he 

 without very sufficient reasons, have repudiated the authority 

 of Galen and Fernelius, which has usually such weight with 



1 Lib. iii, cap. 9. 2 Lib. iv. cap. 2. 



