Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/38

THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 17 the heart is exhausted the disease is a fever or inflammation.' In another place (folio 102) the heart is spoken of as being full of blood which comes or flows from it again. In folio 39, after a description of symptoms, follows a statement to the effect that the heart is distended, the sick man is short of breath because the blood has stagnated and does not circulate. This is an interesting expression, but judging from other parts of the papyrus the word translated circulate can only have a vague meaning, implying move- ment to and fro, just like the expression Tepíodos duaros' in the Hippocratic writings, which seems to imply the circuit of the blood, but in reality has only a similar indefinite meaning. It is evident that the Egyptians knew that blood flowed from the heart, but, like the Greeks, they never seem to have realized that the heart is a pump, nor did they recognize valves.

The Leyden medical papyrus speaks of a paralysis or disturbance of some sort in the blood- vessels of the head, causing blindness and disorder in the body and in the limbs; this seems to be a description of the results of cerebral haemorrhage. Remedies are suggested to subdue the vascular activity occurring in certain diseases."

The Passalaqua papyrus is rather interesting. It was found in an earthen jar at Thebes, and deals largely with leprosy (which prevailed greatly 1. Leeman, Mons. Egypt du Musee. d'Antiq. Leiden, 1839