40 Harvey and the [lect. 



" of the discharge of fumes ; all these are supplied by respira- 

 " tion." 



In his treatise on the formation of the foetus he says : 



" The lungs while (in the adult) they are doing work for the 

 " good of the whole body, make use in the following manner of 

 "the three kinds of vessels which penetrate their substance, 

 " namely, the rough artery, the artery-like vein, and the vein-like 

 " arter}'. By means of the rough artery they are the first to seize 

 " upon and receive the air drawn in by respiration, which 

 " subsequently by the beat of the heart is carried through the 

 " vein-like artery into the left cavity of the heart, to be elaborated 

 " and converted into vital spirits and at the same time to afford 

 "refrigeration for the heart. By means of the third vessel, 

 " which is spoken of as the artery-like vein, the lungs are 

 " nourished with the purest and thinnest blood. Hence, during 

 "this time, the lung is nourished by a vessel possessing the 

 " structure of an artery, but indeed receives spirits by a vessel 

 "which has the substance of a vein. But while the fcetus is 

 " being carried in the uterus, since the lung does not carry out 

 " the function of respiration, but attends only to its own 

 " business, the change of function is accompanied by a change 

 11 of structure. For it lays hold of blood for its own nutrition 

 " by means of the venous vessel, but draws in vital spirits by an 

 " arterial vessel." 



All this is sheer Galenism, with here and there a modern 

 touch. It may be worth while to call to mind that the man 

 who in 1599 wrote this was the pupil, a favourite pupil, of 

 Falloppius, who was in turn the favourite pupil of Vesalius, 

 and that the atmosphere around the chair of Anatomy at Padua 

 must have been thick with the memories and traditions of the 

 teachings of these great men. 



He had probably heard Falloppius tell many a saying of 

 Vesalius, many an expression of the great man's not embodied 

 in the written work. He probably bade his hearers take 

 Vesalius' great work as their text-book, that great work in 

 which Vesalius, by his insistance of the value of original inquiry 

 as against the mere following of authority, and no less by the 

 free expression of his doubts concerning current doctrines and 



