vn] of the Seventeenth Century. 177 



in certain channels to certain pressures ; and he finishes his 

 exposition with the following words: 



" I have expounded the above matters because eminent 

 "anatomists have thought that breathing was instituted in 

 "order that the chief parts of the blood (namely the serous, 

 "and coloured parts as well as the chylous material together 

 "with the lymph) may be completely mixed in the lungs so 

 " that for instance the minutest particles of the one may come 

 "in contact with and receive among themselves the minutest 

 " particles of the rest. And they think that this is effected by 

 " the repeated rythmic pressure exerted by the inflated vessels. 

 "Therefore after my wont, without mentioning any names, I 

 "will, in the interests of truth, expound the reasons which 

 "render such an opinion doubtful." And this he goes on 

 to do. 



Now Malpighi, in the letter to Borelli in which he an- 

 nounced his discovery of the true structure of the lung, and 

 which Borelli at 'the time loaded with praise, had ventured 

 to put forward just such an explanation as that given above 

 of the use of the lungs. It is his old friend Malpighi whom 

 Borelli is here attacking. 



And Malpighi, in his autobiography finished just before his 

 death, and published by the Royal Society in 1697 as part of 

 his posthumous works, in describing how his little tracts were 

 received by the learned world, refers to the matter in the 

 following way : 



"You will wonder, Reader, when I tell you that the most 

 " learned Giovanni Alphonso Borelli whom I a little while back 

 " spoke of as most anxious that my Letters should be published, 

 " now breaks out into opposition to and severe criticism of my 

 "views. The reason which has led him to do this is because 

 " the literary intercourse which existed between us having been 

 " broken off he became so inflamed with anger against me and 

 " mine that in the book which he composed in his last declining 

 " years, namely the one on the movement of animals, he seized 

 " the opportunity of disproving my opinions. In this book, he, 

 "without mentioning my name attacks with many arguments 

 " the use assigned by me to the lungs." He then in turn 

 f. l. 12 



