86 WILLIAM HARVEY 



this tumour was visibly distended as it received the charge 

 of blood brought to it by the artery, with each stroke of the 

 heart; the connexion of parts was obvious when the body of 

 the patient came to be opened after his death. The pulse in 

 the corresponding arm was small, in consequence of the 

 greater portion of the blood being diverted into the tumour 

 and so intercepted. 



Whence it appears that whenever the motion of the blood 

 through the arteries is impeded, whether it be by compres- 

 sion or infarction, or interception, there do the remote 

 divisions of the arteries beat less forcibly, seeing that the 

 pulse of the arteries is nothing more than the impulse or 

 shock of the blood in these vessels. 



CHAPTER IV 



SEEN 



OF THE MOTION OF THE HEART AND ITS AURICLES, AS S 

 IN THE BODIES OF LIVING ANIMALS 



BESIDES the motions already spoken of, we have still to 

 consider those that appertain to the auricles. 



Caspar Bauhin and John Riolan, 1 most learned men and 

 skilful anatomists, inform us that from their observations, 

 that if we carefully watch the movements of the heart in 

 the vivisection of an animal, we shall perceive four motions 

 distinct in time and in place, two of which are proper to the 

 auricles, two to the ventricles. With all deference to such 

 authority I say that there are four motions distinct in point 

 of place, but not of time ; for the two auricles move together, 

 and so also do the two ventricles, in such wise that though 

 the places be four, the times are only two. And this occurs 

 in the following manner: 



There are, as it were, two motions going on together : one 

 of the auricles, another of the ventricles ; these by no means 

 taking place simultaneously, but the motion of the auricles 

 preceding, that of the heart following; the motion appearing 

 to begin from the auricles and to extend to the ventricles. 

 When all things are becoming languid, and the heart is 

 dying, as also in fishes and the colder blooded animals, there 



1 Bauhin, lib. ii, cap. 21. Riolan, lib. viii, cap. i. 





