VALVES OF THE VEINS. 289 



ginning to awaken the human mind from its 

 long night of slumber, and to dissipate the 

 darkness which had, for so many ages, over- 

 shadowed 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 circulation of the 

 blood, which has led to all the modern improve- 

 ments in the medical art, was made by our own 

 countryman, whose name will for ever live in the 

 annals of our race as one of its most distin- 

 guished benefactors. The consideration, also, 

 that it had its source in the study of compara- 

 tive anatomy and physiology, affords us a con- 

 vincing proof of the great advantage that may 

 result from the cultivation 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 diversity of combinations, as if she had 

 purposely designed to elucidate their relations 

 with the vital powers, and to assist our inves- 

 tigations of the laws of organized beings. 



VOL. II. 



