A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.'" — WORDSWORTH 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1S79 



ON CERTAIN ERRORS RESPECTING THE 

 STRUCTURE OF THE HEART ATTRIBUTED 

 TO ARISTOTLE 



IN all the commentaries upon the " Historia Animalium " 

 which I have met with, Aristotle's express and re- 

 peated statement, that the heart of man and the largest 

 animals contains only three cavities, is noted as a remark- 

 able error. Even Cuvier, who had a great advantage 

 over most of the comnentators in his familiarity with 

 the subject of Aristotle's description, and whose habitual 

 caution and moderation seem to desert him when the 

 opportunity of panegyrising the philosopher presents 

 itself, is betrayed into something like a sneer on this 

 topic. 



" Uu reste il n'attribue a cet organe que trois cavite's, 

 erreur qui prouve au moins qu'il en avait regarde" la 

 structure. " 1 



To which remark, what follows will, I think, justify 

 the reply, that it " prouve au moins " that Cuvier had 

 not given ordinary attention, to say nothing of the careful 

 study which they deserve, to sundry passages in the first 

 and the third books of the " Historia" which I proceed 

 to lay before the reader. 



For convenience of reference these passages are marked 

 a, 6, c, &c. 2 



Booki. 17. — (a) " The heart has three cavities, it lies 

 above the lung on the division of the windpipe, and has 

 a fatty and thick membrane where it is united with the 

 great vein and the aorta. It lies upon the aorta, with its 

 point down the chest, in all animals that have a chest. 

 In all, alike in those that have a chest and in those that 

 have none, the foremost part of it is the apex. This is 

 often overlooked through the turning upside down of the 

 dissection. The rounded end of the heart is uppermost, 

 the pointed end of it is largely fleshy and thick, and 

 in its cavities there are tendons. In other animals 

 which have a chest the heart lies in the middle of the 

 chest ; in men, more to the left side, between the nipples 



' " Histoire des Sciences Naturelles," i. p. 15a. 



* The text I have followed is that given by Aubert and Wimmer, " Aris- 

 toteles Tlv.erkunde ; kritsich berichtijter Text mil dentschen Uebersc'tzung " 

 but I have tried here and there t> bring the English version rather closer 



Station, excellent as it is, 



Vol. xxi. — No. 523 



a little inclined to the left nipple in the upper part of the 

 chest. The heart is not large, and its general form is 

 not elongated but rounded, except that the apex is pro- 

 duced into a point. 



{/>) " It has, as already stated, three cavities, the largest 

 of them is on the right, the smallest on the left, the 

 middle-sized one in the middle ; they have all, also the 

 two small ones, passages (rcr/jn^eras-) towards the lung, 

 very evidently as respects one of the cavities. In the 

 region of the union [with the great vein and the aorta] 

 the largest cavity is connected with the largest vein 

 ("near which is the mesentery) ; the middle cavity, with 

 the aorta. 



(c) " Canals (nopoi) from the heart pass to the lung and 

 divide in the same fashion as the windpipe does, closely 

 accompanying those from the windpipe through the whole 

 lung. The canals from the heart are uppermost. 



(</) " No canal is common [to the branches of the wind- 

 pipe and those of the vein] (ovSeis SVorl koivos wdpos) but 

 through those parts of them which are in contact (rr)i/ 

 avvaifnv) the air passes in and they [the nopoi] carry it to 

 the heart. 



(V) " One of the canals leads to the right cavity, the 

 other to the left. 



(/) " Of all the viscera, the heart alone contains blood 

 [in itself]. The lung contains blood, not in itself but in 

 the veins, the heart in itself ; for in each of the cavities 

 there is blood ; the thinnest is in the middle cavity." 



(Book iii. 3). — (g) "Two veins lie in the thorax along- 

 side the spine, on its inner face ; the larger more for- 

 wards, the smaller behind ; the larger more to the right, 

 the smaller, which some call aorta (on account of the 

 tendinous part of it seen in dead bodies), to the left. 

 These take their origin from the heart; they pass entire, 

 preserving the nature of veins, through the other viscera 

 that they reach ; while the heart is rather a part of them, 

 and more especially of the anterior and larger one, which 

 is continued into veins above and below, while between 

 these is the heart. 



(//) " All hearts contain cavities, but in those of very 

 small animals the largest (cavity) is hardly visible, those 

 of middling size have another, and the biggest all 

 three. 



(i) " The point of the heart is directed forwards as was 

 mentioned at first ; the largest cavity to the right and 

 upper side of it, the smallest to the left, and the middle 

 sized one between these ; both of these are much smaller 

 than the largest. 



(£) " They are all connected by passages (o-uweVpiji/rat) 

 with the lung, but on account of the smallness of the 

 canals this is obscure except in one. 



