CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 123 



syncopes would ensue, and that not only would the arteries 

 but the great veins also be nearly emptied of their contents. 

 It is only consonant with reason to conclude that in the 

 course of the half hour hinted at, so much as has escaped 

 has also passed from the great veins through the heart into 

 the aorta. And further, if we calculate how many ounces 

 flow through one arm, or how many pass in twenty or thirty 

 pulsations under the medium ligature, we shall have some 

 grounds for estimating how much passes through the other 

 arm in the same space of time: how much through both 

 lower extremities, how much through the neck on either side, 

 and through all the other arteries and veins of the body, all 

 of which have been supplied with fresh blood, and as this 

 blood must have passed through the lungs and ventricles 

 of the heart, and must have come from the great veins, 

 we shall perceive that a circulation is absolutely necessary, 

 seeing that the quantities hinted at cannot be supplied im- 

 mediately from the ingesta, and are vastly more than can 

 be requisite for the mere nutrition of the parts. 



It is still further to be observed, that in practising phlebot- 

 omy the truths contended for are sometimes confirmed in 

 another way; for having tied up the arm properly, and 

 made the puncture duly, still, if from alarm or any other 

 causes, a state of faintness supervenes, in which the heart 

 always pulsates more languidly, the blood does not flow 

 freely, but distils by drops only. The reason is, that with 

 a somewhat greater than usual resistance offered to the 

 transit of the blood by the bandage, coupled with the 

 weaker action of the heart, and its diminished impelling 

 power, the stream cannot make its way under the ligature ; 

 and farther, owing to the weak and languishing state of the 

 heart, the blood is not transferred in such quantity as wont 

 from the veins to the arteries through the sinuses of that 

 organ. So also, and for the same reasons, are the men- 

 strual fluxes of women, and indeed hemorrhages of every 

 kind, controlled. And now, a contrary state of things 

 occurring, the patient getting rid of his fear and recovering 

 his courage, the pulse strength is increased, the arteries be- 

 gin again to beat with greater force, and to drive the blood 

 even into the part that is bound; so that the blood now 



