38 Harvey and the [lect. 



them to the devices by which in mills and elsewhere water is 

 dammed up. He left for another, for a pupil of his, the oppor- 

 tunity of putting to its right use the discovery which he had 

 made. 



Though he wrote on many points of physiology, Fabricius 

 did not grapple with the problems of the heart. We learn his 

 views on these incidentally from his treatise, Be respiratione et 

 ejus instrumentis, written in 1599, but not published until 

 1603. The greater part of this work deals and deals well with 

 the muscles and with the general mechanism of respiration, 

 but in it he also speaks of the relation of respiration to the 

 work of the heart. 



In view of the importance of rightly appreciating the 

 value of the great work which was to appear a quarter of a 

 century later, it may be worth while to ask what were the views 

 concerning the circulation which at the close of the sixteenth 

 century were being expounded by this great teacher, whose 

 lectures were attended by such crowded classes, that a new 

 great theatre had to be built for him, who was drawing hearers 

 to him, not only from all Italy, but from all parts of Europe, 

 even from distant Britain, and who by his fame, maintained 

 and even increased the reputation of the great school of Padua. 



Strange as it may seem, the teaching of Fabricius in 1599 

 was little more than a repetition of the teaching of Galen ; and 

 it is worthy of notice that in this treatise, while he repeatedly 

 refers to Galen, he hardly at all refers to Vesalius, or to any 

 other modern anatomist. 



This is what he says : 



" Admitting then that the lungs are composed of their own 

 " proper tissue, of the artery-like vein, of the vein-like artery 

 " and of the rough artery (trachea), and that they possess the 

 "artery-like vein for the purposes of their own nourishment, 

 " that they possess their own proper tissue to act like tow for 

 "the purpose of supporting and guarding the terminations of 

 " the vessels, and that they possess the rough artery, in order 

 " that there may be a fit receptacle for receiving the air, 

 " admitting this, it would nevertheless seem altogether reasonable 

 "to. think that the whole construction of the lungs was carried 



