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is entitled Be Venarum OstioHs (Petav. 1G03). He wrote as if he 

 believed he was the first to discover these ostiola, or little doors, 

 when dissecting in 1574. 



" Who, indeed, would have thought of finding membranes and ostiola within the 

 cavities of the veins, of all places else, when their office of carrying blood to the several 

 parts of the body is taken into account?" "The ostiola," he says, "were contrived by 

 the Almighty Maker of all things to prevent over-distension. They are most numerous 

 in the extremities, because of the violent motions to which they are exposed .... 

 and the blood, by reason of the increased heat, is attracted, and flows towards the 

 extremities in excessive quantity." 



Their chief office, however, is to retard the flow of blood, and 

 thus give time for the tissues to select from the blood the nutriment 

 most suited for them. There were no valves in the arteries, which 

 had thick and strong walls, and were not liable to distension. That 

 valves are absent in some great veins connected with important 

 organs is to allow free access of blood to these organs. The figure 

 we have reproduced shows the arm bound with a fillet, as for 

 bleeding ; the veins are swollen, and the position of the valves 

 indicated by slight bulgings, exactly as was figured by Harvey. The 

 other figure shows an everted vein, with its valves. In the original 

 there is a sprig of verbena. How different the uses made of the same 



FROM FABRICIUS, SHOWING VALVES AND VEINS. 



fact by master and pupil ! Fabricius used the fillet to show the 

 position of his ostiola, Harvey to show that, owing to their presence, 

 the blood could not flow from trunks to branches, as the swelling 

 occurs below the ligature. The quotations already given show how 

 the theories of Galen still held the field, and were taught by the most 

 advanced teacher of anatomy, at a period just before Harvey 

 observed, experimented, and wrote. 



Fabricius was greatly respected in the Kepublic of Venice. The 

 illustration we have chosen is the frontispiece to his works, and shows 

 him with his gold chain as a Cavaliere di San Marco, the chain 

 probably presented to him as a mark of respect by the Senate of 

 Venice. His good services to the State were rewarded with a 

 pension. The learned and somewhat erratic G. Ceradini (1844- 

 1894), who took a deep interest in the writings of the Italian 



