Page:The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Wednesday, June 27th, 1877 (IA b22314623).pdf/12

 will not bear comparison with the clear and prac- tical deductions, based upon observation in the dead and living body, which Harvey has laid before us in language as free from hypothetical jargon as anything known in science. In dis- cussing the question of suffocation, Cesalpino* says: "It appears worthy of inquiry why veins swell on the distal side of a ligature, and not on the opposite side, which those know from expe- rience who open a vein, for they apply the ligaturc above the point of section, and not below, because the veins swell below, and not above the ligature. But the opposite result ought to happen if the movement of the blood and spirit passed from the bowels to the body at large; for, if the passage be intercepted, no further progress is possible; there- fore the swelling of the veins ought to have been above the ligature."

After inquiring into Aristotle's view on the subject, Cesalpino goes on to say: "The passages of the heart have been so prepared by Nature that the vena cava opens into the right ventricle of the heart, from which a passage opens into the lung; from the lung there is another passage into the left ventricle of the heart; from which, finally, an outlet opens into the aorta, certain membrancs being placed at the mouths of the vessels to prevent a return; for there is a certain continuous

Loc. cit., p. 234.