NATURE 



[Nov. 6, 1879 



(/) "The great vein proceeds from the largest cavity 

 which lies upwards and to the right ; next through the 

 hollow middle (81a tov koi\ov tov p.iaov) it becomes vein 

 again, this cavity being a part of the vein in which the 

 blood stagnates. 



(;«) " The aorta [proceeds from] the middle [cavity], 

 but not in the same way, for it is connected [with the 

 middle cavity] by a much more narrow tube {o-ipiyya). 



(«) " The [great] vein extends through the heart, 

 towards the aorta from the heart. 



(<?) " The great vein is membranous like skin, the aorta 

 narrower than it and very tendinous, and as it extends 

 towards the head and the lower parts it becomes narrow 

 and altogether tendinous. 



{p) " In the first place, a part of the great vein extends 

 upwards from the heart towards the lung and the attach- 

 ment of the aorta, the vein being large and undivided. 

 It divides into two parts, the one to the lung, the other 

 to the spine and the lowest vertebra of the neck. 



(q) "The vein which extends to the lung first divides 

 into two parts for the two halves of it and then extends 

 alongside each tube (o-vpiyya) and each passage (rpr^a), 

 the larger beside the larger and the smaller beside the 

 smaller, so that no part [of the lung] can be found from 

 which a passage {rpijpa) and a vein are absent. The 

 terminations are invisible on account of their minuteness, 

 but the whole lung appears full of blood. The canals 

 from the vein lie above the tubes given off from the 

 windpipe." 



The key to the whole of the foregoing description of 

 the heart lies in the passages (g) and (/). They prove 

 that Aristotle, like Galen, five hundred years afterwards, 

 and like the great majority of the old Greek anatomists, 

 did not reckon what we call the right auricle as a con- 

 stituent of the heart at all, but as a hollow part or 

 dilatation of the "great vein." Aristotle is careful to 

 state that his observations were conducted on suffocated 

 animals ; and if any one will lay open the thorax of a 

 dog or a rabbit, which has been killed with chloroform, in 

 such a manner as to avoid wounding any important vessel, 

 he" will at once see why Aristotle adopted this view. 



For, the vena cava inferior {!>), the right auricle (R.a) 

 and the vena cava superior and innominate vein {V.I.) 

 distended with blood, seem to form one continuous 

 column, to which the heart is attached as a sort of ap- 

 pendage ( g). This column is, as Aristotle says, vein above 

 <,) and vein below (£), the upper and the lower divisions 

 being connected 8uY tov koi\ov toJ* fxlo-ov — or by means of 

 the intervening cavity or chamber {R.a.) — which is the 

 right auricle. 



But when, from the four cavities of the heart recognised 

 by us moderns, one is excluded, there remain three — 

 which is just what Aristotle says. The solution of the 

 difficulty is, in fact, as absurdly simple as that presented 

 by the egg of Columbus ; and any error there may be, is 

 not to be put down to Aristotle, but to that inability to 

 comprehend that the same facts may be accurately de- 

 scribed in different ways, which is the special characteristic 

 of the commentatorial mind. That the three cavities 

 mentioned by Aristotle are just those which remain if the 

 right auricle is omitted, is plain enough from what is said 

 in (b), (c), ((?), (/), and (/). For, in a suffocated animal, the 

 "right cavity" which is directly connected with the great 

 vein and is obviously the right ventricle, being distended 

 v. ith blood, will look much larger than the middle cavity, 

 which, since it gives rise to the aorta, can only be the left 

 ventricle. And this, again, will appear larger than the thin 



and collapsed left auricle, which must be Aristotle's left 

 cavity, inasmuch as this cavity is said to be connected by 

 ■Fopoi with the lung. The reason why Aristotle considered' 

 the left auricle to be a part of the heart, while he merged 

 the right auricle in the great vein, is, obviously, the small 

 relative size of the venous trunks and their sharper de- 

 marcation from the auricle. Galen, however, perhaps 

 more consistently, regarded the left auricle also as a mere 

 part of the "arteria venosa." The canal which leads- 

 from the right cavity of the heart to the lung is, without 

 doubt, the pulmonary artery. But it may be said that, 

 in this case, Aristotle contradicts himself, inasmuch as in 

 (p) and (q) a vessel which is obviously the pulmonary- 

 artery, is described as a branch of the great vein. How- 



Fig. 1. — A dog having been killed by chloroform, enough of tlie right u.ill of 

 the thorax was removed, without any m table bleeding, to expose the. 

 thoracic v.scera. A carefully measured "inline sketch of the parts in 

 situ was then made, and fin dissectti n, twenty-four hi urs afterwards, the 

 necessary anatomical details were added. The woodcut is a faithfully 

 reduced copy of i!il- drawing thus constructed: and it represents the 

 relations of the heart and great vessels as Aristotle saw them in a suff - 

 cated animal. 



All but the inner lobe of the right lung has been removed : as well as the 

 right half of the pericardium and the right walls of ihe right . 

 ventricle. It must be remembered that the thin transparent pericardial 

 membrane appears nothing like s > distinct in nature. 



a.6., Aristotle's great vein "; /'.A, right vena innominata and vena cava 

 superior ; /', the iuferior vena ca a ; R.a, the " hollow middle " part of 

 the great vein or the right auricle ; K.v', the prolongati in of the cavity 

 of the right ventricle A' v t .wards the pulmonary artery ; />. I ne of thi 

 tricuspid valves; /V. the pericardium ; I.sv. superior intercortal vein: 

 As, vena azygos ; P. A., right pulmonary artery ; Br, right bronchus : 

 L. posterior fobe of the r.ght lung: (E . descending 



aorta: H. liver, in section, with hepatic vein, veni p irta, and gall, 

 bladder,^/;, separated by the diaphragm, ah. > seen in seen in, from thr: 

 thoracic cavity. 



ever, this difficulty also disappears, if we reflect that, in 

 Aristotle's way of looking at the matter, the line of demar- 

 cation between the great vein and the heart coincides with 

 the right auriculo-ventricular aperture ; and that, inasmuch 

 as the conical prolongation of the right ventricle which 

 leads to the pulmonary artery (Fig. I, R-v'), lies close 

 in front of the auricle, its b'se may very easily (as the 

 figure shows) be regarded as part of the general open- 

 ing of the "reat vein into the right ventricle. In fact' 



