CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 129 



CHAPTER XIV 

 CONCLUSION OF THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE CIRCULATION 



AND now I may be allowed to give in brief my view of 

 the circulation of the blood, and to propose it for general 

 adoption. 



Since all things, both argument and ocular demonstration, 

 show that the blood passes through the lungs, and heart by 

 the force of the ventricles, and is sent for distribution to all 

 parts of the body, where it makes its way into the veins 

 and porosities of the flesh, and then flows by the veins from 

 the circumference on every side to the centre, from the 

 lesser to the greater veins, and is by them finally discharged 

 into the vena cava and right auricle of the heart, and this in 

 such a quantity or in such a flux and reflux thither by the 

 arteries, hither by the veins, as cannot possibly be supplied 

 by the ingesta, and is much greater than can be required 

 for mere purposes of nutrition; it is absolutely necessary to 

 conclude that the blood in the animal body is impelled in a 

 circle, and is in a state of ceaseless motion; that this is the 

 act or function which the heart performs by means of its 

 pulse ; and that it is the sole and only end of the motion and 

 contraction of the heart. 



CHAPTER XV 



THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD is FURTHER CONFIRMED BY 

 PROBABLE REASONS 



IT will not be foreign to the subject if I here show 

 further, from certain familiar reasonings, that the circula- 

 tion is matter both of convenience and necessity. In the 

 first place, since death is a corruption which takes place 

 through deficiency of heat, 1 and since all living things are 

 warm, all dying things cold, there must be a particular seat 

 and fountain, a kind of home and hearth, where the cher- 

 isher of nature, the original of the native fire, is stored and 

 preserved; from which heat and life are dispensed to all 



1 Arittotclc* De Respiratione, lib. ii et iii: De Part. Animal, et alibi. 

 (5) HC XXXVIII 



