CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 87 



is a short pause between these two motions, so that the 

 heart aroused, as it were, appears to respond to the motion, 

 now more quickly, now more tardily; and at length, when 

 near to death, it ceases to respond by its proper motion, but 

 seems, as it were, to nod the head, and is so slightly moved 

 that it appears rather to give signs of motion to the pulsating 

 auricles than actually to move. The heart, therefore, ceases 

 to pulsate sooner than the auricles, so that the auricles have 

 been said to outlive it, the left ventricle ceasing to pulsate 

 first of all; then its auricle, next the right ventricle; and, 

 finally, all the other parts being at rest and dead, as Galen 

 long since observed, the right auricle still continues to beat ; 

 life, therefore, appears to linger longest in the right auricle. 

 Whilst the heart is gradually dying, it is sometimes seen to 

 reply, after two or three contractions of the auricles, roused 

 as it were to action, and making a single pulsation, slowly, 

 unwillingly, and with an effort. 



But this especially is to be noted, that after the heart has 

 ceased to beat, the auricles however still contracting, a finger 

 placed upon the ventricles perceives the several pulsations 

 of the auricles, precisely in the same way and for the same 

 reason, as we have said, that the pulses of the ventricles are 

 felt in the arteries, to wit, the distension produced by the jet 

 of blood. And if at this time, the auricles alone pulsating, 

 the point of the heart be cut off with a pair of scissors, you 

 will perceive the blood flowing out upon each contraction of 

 the auricles. Whence it is manifest that the blood enters the 

 ventricles, not by any attraction or dilatation of the heart, 

 but by being thrown into them by the pulses of the auricles. 



And here I would observe, that whenever I speak of 

 pulsations as occurring in the auricles or ventricles, I mean 

 contractions: first the auricles contract, and then and sub- 

 sequently the heart itself contracts. When the auricles con- 

 tract they are seen to become whiter, especially where they 

 contain but little blood; but they are filled as magazines or 

 reservoirs of the blood, which is tending spontaneously and, 

 by its motion in the veins, under pressure towards the 

 centre; the whiteness indicated is most conspicuous towards 

 the extremities or edges of the auricles at the time of their 

 contractions. 



