HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 15 



reaching statement that the blood passes from the right side 

 of the heart through the lungs, and by means of anastomos- 

 ing connections is transferred to the pulmonary vein and so 

 returned to the left side of the heart, was made by the 

 Spanish theologian, Servetus. Serve tus wrote a number of 

 speculative treatises on theological disputes, which were 

 condemned as heterodox by both the Catholic church and 

 by Protestants. After the publication of his book, the 

 Errors of the Trinity, he was obliged to leave his home, 

 and under an assumed name entered the university of Paris, 

 and studied medicine. But even in the field of medicine 

 he was considered as little orthodox as he was in his theo- 

 logical views, and he was compelled to withdraw one of his 

 medical publications by order of the Medical Council. 



After drifting around for some time as a practicing phy- 

 sician he decided to publish a book which should set forth 

 his theological views in detail. Soon afterwards appeared 

 his book entitled, the Restoration of Christianity. In 

 explaining in this book the workings of the Holy Spirit, he 

 adds an exposition of the vital spirit of the human body. 

 In this exposition he says that the blood goes to the lungs 

 from the right side of the heart, assumes a bright color in 

 tlie lungs, and is then transferred to the pulmonary vein. 

 Here it is mingled with the inspired air, is relieved of some 

 waste products, and then returns to the heart, where the 

 u vital spirit " is made out of the arterial blood. Hence 

 the soul resides in the blood and not in the solid organs. 

 This soul is nourished from the inspired air and the finest 

 constituents of the blood. "It, the soul, is a thin spirit 

 elaborated by the power of heat, of a bright golden hue 

 and fiery potency, containing in itself the substance of 

 water, air and fire. The very mind itself, the highest 

 form of the soul, resides in the choroid plexus of the 

 ventricles of the brain. (The choroid plexus is a network 

 of blood vessels lining the ventricles of the brain.) The 

 hollow ventricles of the brain are to permit air to be drawn 

 through the nose and ethmoid bone, and stored up in them, 



