THE MOTION OF THE BLOOD. 195 



seventy years previously by Servetus 8 , a Spanish physician of great anatomical 

 knowledge, and original and active mind*, who was slowly burnt to death* 

 Oct. 27. 1553, the fire being made to last two hours by means of wood small in 

 quantity and green, through Calvin, for not happening to be in all his writings of 

 the same opinion as himself upon a point in divinity. Calvin was honourable 

 enough to produce private letters in evidence of the difference of the opinions 

 of Servetus from his own, and fancied himself to be a Christian. 



8 His words are, " sanguine, quern dexter ventriculus cordis sinistro commu- 

 nicat. Fit autem communicatio haec, non per parietem cordis medium, ut vulgo 

 creditur, sed magno artificio, a dextro cordis ventriculo, longo per pulmones 

 ductu, agitatur sanguis subtilis , et a vena arteriosa, in arteriam venosam trans- 

 funditur. Deinde, in ipsa arteria venosa inspirato aeri miscetur, expirations a 

 fuligine repurgatur. Atque ita tandem a sinistro cordis ventriculo totum mixtum 

 per diastolem attrahitur, apta suppellex, ut fiat spiritus vitalis. Quod ita per 

 pulmones fiat communicatio et prseparatio, docet conjunctio vario, et communica- 

 tio venae arteriosae cum arteria venosa in pulmonibus. Confirmat haec magnitudo 

 insignis venae arteriosa?, quae nee talis, nee tanta facta esset, nee tantam a corde 

 ipso vim purissimi sanguinis in pulmones emitteret ob solum eorum nutri- 

 mentum, &c. Item, a pulmonibus ad cor non simplex aer, sed mixtus san- 

 guine mittitur per arteriam venosam : ergo, in pulmonibus, fit mixtio, &c. 

 Ilia itaque spiritus vitalis, a sinistro cordis ventriculo, in arterias totius corporis 

 deinde transfunditur, &c. Sicut, in transfusione a venis in arterias, est in pul- 

 mone novum genus vasorum, ex vena et arteria, &c." If we could be satisfied 

 that by spiritus vitalis Servetus meant blood, we should say that he had also 

 described the general circulation, because he mentions the course of the vital spirit 

 from the left ventricle into the arteries throughout the body, and the course of the 

 blood from the right side of the heart implies the course of it from the body or 

 some part to the right side of the heart. Tiie expressions per diastolem attra- 

 hitur might almost persuade us that he was acquainted with the influence of the 

 vacuum from the expansion of the ventricles: and his account of the office of respir- 

 ation to liberate the blood from its soot, exjnratione a fuligine repurgatur, completely 

 agrees with the discovery of the separation of carbon ; while the doctrine that a 

 pulmonibus ad cor, aer, mixtus sanguine, mittitur per arteriam venosam, accords 

 with the present doctrine of the absorption of a portion of the air. 



I am indebted for this most interesting quotation to the Medical Dissertations 

 of Dr. Sigmond (ed. 2. 1828), who possesses a copy of Servetus bequeathed to 

 him by Dr. Sims, for many years President of the London Medical Society, and 

 supposed by Dr. Sims to be the only copy not burnt by the furious Calvin ; to 

 have been secreted and saved by Dr. Colladon, one of the judges ; to have 

 passed to the Landgrave of Hesse- Cassel, and then to Dr. Mead, who had 

 nearly completed a quarto edition of it, when, at the instance of Gibson, Bishop 

 of London, the edition was seized, May 27. 1723, and burnt, with the exception 

 of a very few copies. The Due de Valliere gave nearly 400 guineas for the book, 

 and at his sale it brought 3810 livres. Dr. Sigmond, however, does not believe 

 it to be the original copy. 



c In the words of an Harveyan oration by Sir George Baker, " Vis ilia animi 

 tarn vivida, tarn libera et erecta, impatiens magistri." 



O t 



