56 FATHERS OF BIOLOGY. 



the branches of the coronary arteries and veins, and 

 penetrate the muscular substance of the ventricles. He 

 endeavoured to prove, by experiment, observation, and 

 reasoning, that the arteries as well as the veins contained 

 blood, and in this connection he tells an amusing story. 

 A certain teacher of anatomy, who had declared that the 

 aorta contained no blood, was earnestly desired by his 

 pupils, who were ardent disciples of Galen, to exhibit 

 the requisite demonstration, they themselves offering 

 animals for the experiment. He, however, after various 

 subterfuges, declined, until they promised to give him a 

 suitable remuneration, which they raised by subscription 

 among themselves to the amount of a thousand drachmae 

 (perhaps ^30). The professor, being thus compelled 

 to commence the experiment, totally failed in his attempt 

 to cut down upon the aorta, to the no small amusement 

 of his pupils, who, thereupon taking up the experiment 

 themselves, made an opening into the thorax in the way 

 in which they had been instructed by Galen, passed one 

 ligature round the aorta at the part where it attaches 

 itself to the spine, and another at its origin, and then, by 

 opening the intervening portion of the artery, showed 

 that blood was contained in it. 



The arteries, Galen thought, possessed a pulsative and 

 attractive power of their own, independently of the heart, 

 the moment of their dilatation being the moment of their 

 activity. They, in fact, drew their charge from the heart, 



