VIII.] ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 187 



it. But the latter branch, being given off close to 

 the connection of the great vein with the ventricle, 

 was also counted as one of the two iropoi by which the 

 "heart" (that is to say the right ventricle, the left 

 ventricle, and the left auricle of our nomenclature) 

 communicates with the lung. 



The only other difficulty that I observe is con- 

 nected with (K). If Aristotle intended by this to 

 affirm that the middle cavity (the left ventricle), like 

 the other two, is directly connected with the lung by 

 a TTo/309, he would be in error. But he has excluded 

 this interpretation of his words by (E), in which the 

 number and relations of the canals, the existence of 

 which he admits, are distinctly defined. I can only 

 imagine then, that, so far as this passage applies to 

 the left ventricle, it merely refers to the indirect 

 communication of that cavity with the vessels of the 

 lungs, through the left auricle. 



On this evidence I submit that there is no escape 

 from the conclusion that, instead of having committed 

 a gross blunder, Aristotle has given a description of 

 the heart which, so far as it goes, is remarkably 

 accurate. He is in error only in regard to the 

 differences which he imagines to exist between large 

 and small hearts (H). 



Cuvier (who has been followed by other comment- 

 ators) ascribes another error to Aristotle : 



"Aristote suppose que la trachee-artere se prolonge jusqu'au 

 coeur, et semble croire, en consequence, que 1'air y p6n6tre (I. c. 

 p. 152)." 



Upon what foundation Cuvier rested the first of 



