PATHOLOGY. 
a ft ray all who followed him to the time of Harvey; but, 
when the refearches of that great man had unfolded the 
myftery of the circulation, his enemies dared to affirm, 
that the writings of Hippocrates had furnilhed the lights 
which guided him in the path of difcovery. 
The philofophers who joined theftudyof medicine to 
that of the other fciences, feem to have been equally ig¬ 
norant of the laws which regulate the blood’s motion. 
Thus, Ariftotle exprefsly ftates that the blood never re¬ 
turns to the heart. The Alexandrian anatomifts main¬ 
tained that the arteries held no blood, but were filled 
with air; from which circumftance they gave them the 
name, which they have conftantly retained, from a»p, air, 
and T'/jfsw, to hold. To explain the occurrence of blood 
in thele veflels after death, they fuppofed the exiftence of 
fubtle communications with the veins. 
The genius of Galen difdained to follow blindly the 
iteps of his predeceffors; and he endeavoured at leaft to 
difcover the truth by experiments and obfervations on 
the ftrmSture of the body. By thefe means he afcertained 
fome fafts, although he could not fucceed in piercing the 
veil which concealed the fecret of the circulation. He 
feems to have recognized the ufe of the valves at the two 
orifices of the ventricles. He proved, by tying an artery 
with two ligatures, that thefe veflels contain blood during 
life; and ftates that they are filled by the contraction of 
the heart, in confequence of which they pulfate. Thefe 
circumftances feem to indicate a confiderable advance¬ 
ment in the knowledge of the circulation; but we mult 
mention, in the fame fpirit of impartiality, the contradic¬ 
tions and uncertainty which prevail in the works of 
Galen on this fubjeCt, and the limits which his labours 
could not exceed. He ftill referred, with Hippocrates, 
the origin of the veins to the liver, and fuppofed a paflage 
of the blood through thefeptum of the ventricles, while 
a fmall portion entered the pulmonary artery to nourilh 
the lungs: he imagined, lallly, that it might pafs recipro¬ 
cally between the pulmonary artery and veins. 
There could be little reafon to expeCt, that in the 
troubled and barbarous times which followed the age in 
which Galen fiourilhed, the fecret of the circulation 
fliould be difcovered ; ftill lefs that it Ihould be explained 
to phyficians by men whofe purfuits were foreign to the 
fcience of medicine. Yet it has been boldly afierted 
that Nemefius, bifhop of Emefa, knew' the courfe of the 
blood, as it has been afcertained by the fubfequent la¬ 
bours of Harvey. The editor of the Oxford edition of 
his works, has imbibed the true fpirit of a commentator ; 
who difcovers in the writings of the ancients, meanings 
which never were in the contemplation of the authors; 
and abufes the moderns as plagiarifts, for decorating 
themfelves with the difcoveries of antiquity. But on what 
grounds does Nemefius claim the honour of a difcovery, 
denied to fo many great geniufes ? Becaufe, according 
to Freind, the bifnop ftates, that the blood palfes from the 
arteries into the veins during fleep. This reftriftion im¬ 
mediately overturns the claim; which would indeed be 
deftroyed by the kind of motion that he fuppofes to take 
place, viz. a reciprocal alternation of undulations, like 
that of the Euripus. In another paflage cited by Dutens, 
he fpeaks of the arteries in their dilatation attracting the 
blood from the veins; but this paflage, which we have 
already quoted at p. 16, fufficiently proves that he knew 
nothing of the matter; and exemplifies ftill further the 
abfurdity of a perfon’s attempting to dogmatize, as 
Dutens lias done, on fubjeCts of which, as being foreign 
to his profeflion, and difficult of inveftigation, he cannot 
reafonably be expected to be a competent judge. 
“Thus,” to ufe the words of Senac, “a theologian 
writes on the nature of man; a fubjedt which does not 
very properly belong to fuch a writer : on no other tefti- 
mony than fome vague and ridiculous expreflions, he 
gains the credit of knowing the circulation, of which the 
greateft phyficians and anatomifts had been hitherto com¬ 
pletely ignorant. Thus it is, that interpreters and com- 
Vol. XIX. No. 1285. 
29 
mentators are milled by a blind zeal for antiquity, and 
difcover hidden meanings in the moft Ample expreflions. 
How would their boldnefs and aflurance have been aug¬ 
mented, if Nemefius had exprefled himfelf as clearly as 
an ancient fcholiaft of Euripides has done, where he fays, 
“ that the blood flows through the veins, and that thefe 
veflels receive it from the arteries.” Should we, how'ever, 
on this infulated and cafual expreflion, be juftified in be¬ 
llowing on a weigher of words, and meafurer of phrafes, 
the honour of a difcovery, which had eluded the re¬ 
fearches of the greateft philofophers ? 
The date of darknefs and ignorance, in which the hu¬ 
man mind languifhed during the fucceeding ages, does not 
allow us to expeCt that any writer of that period can dif- 
pute with Harvey the honour of the great difcovery. 
About the fixteenth century the curiofity of mankind 
was again excited to the inveftigation of this interefting 
fubjeCl. Reafon, which had hitherto fubmitted to the 
yoke of authority, began to aflert her rights; and feveral 
phyficians were bold enough to examine fubjeCts which 
Hippocrates and Galen had not been able to develope. 
Thefirft ray of light was thrown on the circulation, by 
a man, whofe name cannot be mentioned without ex¬ 
citing feelings of compaflion for his unmerited and barba¬ 
rous treatment, and of indignation at the unrelenting 
bigotry of. his cruel perfecutor. Gifted with an ardent 
and penetrating genius, Servetus made a rapid progrefs, 
at a very early age, in the fciences of natural philofophy 
and divinity. Compelled to leave Spain, his native 
country, he paffed into France, and ftudied medicine at 
Paris, under Winter d’Andernach, who was profeflor in 
the college lately fotinded by Francis I. He vifited dif¬ 
ferent parts of France and Germany, and, after various 
perfecutions on account of his religious opinions, fettled 
in Dauphiny. But Calvin, being too narrow-minded to 
grant to a rival that freedom of thought and liberty of 
confcience which he had fo 1'uccefsfully exerted in his ' 
own perfon, had him feized and condemned to the 
flames. Thus, fays Portal, “ one heretic deftroyed ano¬ 
ther ; but the difference was, that an ambitious and de- 
figning knave pronounced the condemnation, and one of 
the fineft and moft enlightened geniufes of Europe was 
the lamented vifitim of this iniquitous fentence.” 
The paflage, which proves Servetus to have been ac¬ 
quainted with the pulmonary circulation, occurs in his 
work de Rejiitutione Chrijlianifmi; which, having been 
carefully deftroyed on account of the herefy which it 
contains, is now extremely fcarce ; fo that two or three 
copies only are fuppofed to exift, and the duke de la 
Valiere gave the fum of 132I. for one. It ftates, that the 
vital fpirit is compofed of the moft fubtile parts of the 
blood, and of the air, which infinuates itfelf into the 
lungs ; and that the fource of this blood is in the right 
ventricle. “But the communication, that is to fay, the 
paflage of the blood, from the right to the left ventricle, 
does not take place acrofs the middle feptum, as perfons 
have generally imagined ; it depends on a more Angular 
ftrufilure. In the long windings of the lung, this fubtile 
blood is agitated, and prepared by the aCtion of the 
vifcus, and gains a yellow colour. From the vena arteriofa 
(pulmonary artery) it palfes into the arteria venofce (pul¬ 
monary veins) where it becomes mingled with the air 
that has entered the lungs, and lofes its fuliginous excre¬ 
ments. Laftly, it enters the left ventricle, which attracts 
it in its dialtole. Such is the preparation of the 
blood, from which the vital fpirit is formed ; this prepa¬ 
ration, and this paflage from the arterial vein into the ve¬ 
nous artery, are evidently proved by the fize of the vef- 
fels; which would not be fo large,'nor poflefs fo many 
branches; nor carry to the lung fo great a volume of 
blood, if it were deftined to the nourifhment only of the 
vifcus.” He adds, that the vital fpirit is lent from the ieft 
ventricle into all the arteries of the body. This repre- 
fentation proves inconteftably that Servetus knew the 
minor circulation. He laid the foundation of a building, 
I which 
