400 A Century of Science 



But the Germans are not the only sinners ; let me 

 cite an instance from near home. In the quarto 

 " Hamlet " of 1603 we read : 



" Full forty years are past, their date is gone, 

 Since happy time joined both our hearts as one : 

 And now the blood that filled my youthful veins 

 Runs weakly in their pipes," etc. 



Whereupon Mr. Edward Yining calls upon us to 

 observe how Shakespeare, " to whom all human 

 knowledge seems to be but a matter of instinct, in 

 [these lines] asserts the circulation of the blood 

 in the veins and ' pipes,' a truth which Harvey 

 probably did not even suspect until at least thir- 

 teen years later," etc. 1 Does Mr. Vining really 

 suppose that what Harvey did was to discover 

 that blood runs in our veins? A little further 

 study of history would have taught him that even 

 the ancients knew that blood runs in the veins. 2 

 About fourteen hundred years before " Hamlet " 

 was written, Galen proved that it also runs in the 



1 The Bankside Shakespeare, vol. xi. p. xi. 



2 The writings of Hippocrates abound in examples, as in his 

 interesting explanation of congestion, extravasation, etc. (De 

 Ventis,x..-xiv., Opera, ed. Littre*, torn. vi. pp. 104-114), to cite one 

 instance out of a thousand : 'EweiSoj/ o5j/ *s ras iraxfias Kal iro\v- 

 aifj.ovs rwv </>\6j8wv iroXvs o)?p Ppiffr), fipiaas Se /neV??, Ku\6erai rb 

 aT/jLCt 5t6|ieVoi* TT? /j,ev olv eVo-TTj/cc, rff 8e vwQpws 8iee'px*Tai, TT; 

 Se Oaffffov' etc. 



