ANATOMY. 



uc did, and thereby rendered his 

 immortal. 



opcr in this place to review 

 tin.- scvcr.il steps which were made in the 

 investigation of ihis important subject. 

 Hippocrates believed that all the vessels 

 Communicated with each other, and that 

 the blood underwent :i kind ot'lhix and re- 

 flux from and to the heart, like the ebbing 1 

 and flowing- of the sea. The anatomists at 

 Alexandria adopted a \\ rong- but ingenious 

 opinion; as they to nul the artencs empty , 

 and the veins containing blood, in their 

 ns, they imagined that the former 

 ibesfor the distribution of air, and 

 gfave them that name, which they have re- 

 tained ever since ; and that tiie veins \vcre 

 tJie only channels for the blood. Galen 

 ascertained that the blood flowed both by 

 tile arteries and veins,though he knew not 

 then its natural course. On the revival of 

 anatomy in Europc,thc pulmonary circula- 

 tion was known to muny eminent men. 

 This wascerUiinly the case with Sen LUIS, 

 who fell a sacrifice, on account of his reli- 

 gious opinions, to the savage bigotry and 

 intolerance of Calvin. Fabriciusai. 

 pendente, the preceptor of our famous 

 Harvey, particularly described the valves 

 of the veins, the mechanism of which 

 would absolutely prevent the blood from 

 flowing in those vessels towards the ex- 

 tremities. M hen Harvey returned from 

 his studies in Italy, his attention being ex- 

 cited to the subject, he began those expe- 

 riments, by which he learned and demon- 

 strated the fact of the circulation. H.ir- 

 ;.st proposition of the subject im- 

 - conviction so strongly on the mind 

 that we arc left in perfect astonishment, 

 how a circumstance so luminously evident 

 should have remained so lung unobserved. 

 It must be granted, that tin- heart projects 

 about tw o ounces of blood into the arte- 

 ries at every pulse; wh.it then, it may be 

 asked, becomes uf this large quantity of 

 blood, It must he- 



granted that the heart receives that quan- 

 tity prior to every pulse. From whence is 

 it received, unless the blood cin 

 Harvey tied an artery, and the correspond- 

 ing vein received no blood; he tied 

 and all its branches, and those of the cor- 

 responding . :e choakcd with 

 blood, even to the entire obstruction of 

 circulation and motion. Hu: 

 not acquainted with the direct communi- 

 cation that exists between these \ 

 He imagined that the blood transuded 

 from tlie arteries into the veins through a 

 spongy substance. Much yet remained to 

 be ascertwfted b;. . .d observit- 



and i. 



As opportunities of <'. i came 



more numerous, t ' id \vri- 



teri iii :i!..i'nmv v. 



ous men, having goni- through their edu- 

 cation. I to consul' 

 thcih-l h i s. |\ is n.-i' 1n be WOIKK 

 that errors and deficiencies in a; 

 \\ei-i- found in every page of the works of 

 Calcn.tosay nothingof Hippocnues, since 

 the human bodv, in Irs time, could not be 

 consulted for information. The an 



. writers on : 



quickly demolished, and anatomy began 

 to be taught from the subject itself. \\ e 

 must not omit the influence, which the 

 writings of our immortal countryman, Ma. 

 con, had on the prosecution of natural 

 knowledge, and in evcv 

 soiling-. The philosophy of Arisf 

 driven from the pre-eminent station which 

 it had so long occupied, to make room for 

 the onh solid and secure method of obser- 

 vation, experiment, and induction. At this 

 time the Academy del Cimcntoa' 

 Italy, the Hoy al Society in London, and the 

 Hoyal Academy in Pans. From this peri- 

 od, the important doctrine of rejecting all 

 hypothesis, i,r gi nei-tl knowledge, till a 

 sufficient number of facts shall hav 



lid observation and ju- 

 dicious e\p. rin, en's, lias been every day 



growinjr into move credit The anatomists 



and phisiologists of tii listin- 



guished themselves by a pa'i 



tion of nature itself, and an 



count of the phenomena \\hieh they ob- 



ser\ cd. 



Afti-rthe discovery and know! 

 the circulation of the blood, th 

 tion would naturally be about the , 

 and route of the nut rit ions part of t ',, 

 or chyle, from the bo 



The name of Aselli, an 

 physician, is rendered illustrious by the 



IV of the \e- .',c.ls \v li; 

 chyle fi-om the inH ^ti;, 

 tin m full of a white liquor 01 

 tery of living animals, and from tl. 

 cumstance calleil tin m milk 



in all p 

 living: 



1'ecquet, in I 



VLT the thoracic due;. 

 tainkof:dlthc lacte.ds, which con-- 

 chyle into the subclav lan vein And now 

 the lacteaJs having been traced from thi 

 intestines 1o the thoracic duct, and that 



