vi CIRCULATION OF BLOOD: ITS DISCOVERY 161 



be placed. certain indisputable facts, which have been collected with 

 great acumen by G. Ceradini (1876-77). 



Ceradini points out that Valverde, a Spanish pupil of Columbus, 

 ascribes the impermeability of the septum to his master in an 

 anatomical treatise, which appeared in Rome in 1556. To this 

 there is a preface dated 1554, in which the author states that he 

 had already prepared the numerous plates that were to illustrate 

 his book, which must have taken him at least twelve months. 

 This takes us back to 1553, the year in which Servetus published 

 the book that cost him his life. It is, further, only reasonable to 

 suppose that Columbus had developed his theory from his Chair 

 some years before publishing it in his treatise. 



We know that the physiological passages of .Christianismi 

 restitutio were first discovered at the end of the seventeenth 

 century. Ceradini shows that in 1571, G. Giinther, who had 

 taught Servetus and Vesalius in Paris, described the lesser circula- 

 tion in the words of Columbus, praising him without allusion to 

 his pupil Servetus a proof that he was unacquainted with the 

 Ckristianismi restitutio. In all probability it was unknown in 

 Italy, as it is not upon the Index librorum prohibitorum, drawn 

 up by the Council of Trent, and published in Rome by Pius IV. 

 in 1564, which contains the two other heretical works of Servetus, 

 De Trinitatis erroribus. 



Lastly, by comparing the two theories, Ceradini produced cogent 

 evidence that Columbus was no plagiarist from Servetus. 



Columbus completely and unconditionally denied the per- 

 meability of the cardiac septum ; he affirmed that not merely the 

 vena arteriosa, but also the arteria venosa, were of a conspicuous 

 size ; he further contradicted (incorrectly) Galen's respiratory 

 function, that is the formation of smoky fumes in the blood, 

 and their expulsion by means of expiration. Servetus, on the 

 contrary, while denying the presence of openings in the septum, 

 admitted that " aliquid resudare possit " through the same, and 

 maintained Galen's doctrine by his assertion that the blood " in 

 ipsa arteria venosa inspirato aere niiscetur, et exspiratione a 

 fuligine expurgatur." 



Without going so far as to support Ceradini's hypothesis that 

 Servetus learned the theory of the lesser circulation from Columbus, 

 and attempted to bring it into harmony with the older doctrines 

 of Galen, we cannot doubt that the Cremonese anatomist had' 

 expounded his theory some time before the Spanish physician and 

 theologian published his. 



Roth, too, whom Tigerstedt calls the most learned anatomist of 

 the sixteenth century, attributes the discovery of the pulmonary 

 circulation to Columbus, and he expressly adds that there was 

 nothing in favour of the opinion that Servetus had contributed to 

 it. It is interesting to follow Roth's arguments. He insists on 



VOL. I M 



