VALVES OF THE VEINS. 207 



and to dissipate the darkness which had, for so many ages, 

 overshadowed the regions of philosophy and science. We 

 cannot but feel a pride, as Englishmen, in the recollection, 

 that a discovery of such vast importance as that of the cir- 

 culation of the blood, which has led to all the modern im- 

 provements in the medical art, was made by our own coun- 

 tryman, whose name will for ever live in the annals of our 

 race as one of its most distinguished benefactors. The con- 

 sideration, also,, that it had its source in the study of com- 

 parative anatomy and physiology, affords us a convincing 

 proof of the great advantage that may result from the culti- 

 vation of those sciences; to which Nature, indeed, seems, 

 in this instance, expressly to have invited us, by displaying 

 to our view, in the organs of the circulation, an endless di- 

 versity of combinations, as if she had purposely designed to 

 elucidate their relations wih the vital powers, and to assist 

 our investigations of the laws of organized beings. 



