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, overshadowed the 

 regions of philosophy and science. We cannot 

 but feel a pride, as Englishmen, in the recollec- 

 tion, that a discovery of such vast importance as 

 that of the circulation of the blood, which has 

 led to nearly all the modern improvements 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 distinguished bene- 

 factors. The consideration, also, that it had its 

 source in the study of comparative anatomy and 

 physiology, affords us a convincing proof of the 

 great advantages that may result from the culti- 

 vation of these sciences ; to which Nature, in- 

 deed, 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 investigations of the laws of 

 organized beings. 



VOL. II. 



