Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/355

 the body. This viscus indeed was so highly dignified that it was thought to be produced in the very beginning, and simul- taneously with the heart, from the seminal fluid of the mother ; and the medical fable of the three vesicles or three kids, as they were called, was eagerly defended. Among the number of modern abettors of such views, Parisanus has of late with confidence enough, but little skill, been singing to the old measure. These good people do not consider that the vesicles are in motion in the egg, that the heart is palpitating and the blood present and perfectly concocted, before any sign or vestige of the liver ap- pears. The blood is much rather to be accounted the efficient cause of the liver, than this the author of the blood : for the liver is engendered after the blood, and from it, being adnate to the vessels that contain it.

But neither can I agree with the Aristotelians, who maintain that the heart is the author of the blood; for its parenchyma or proper substance arises some little time after the blood, and is superadded to the pulsating vesicles. I am, however, in much doubt as to whether the pulsating vesicle or point, or the blood itself be the older ; whether it be the fluid contained, or the containing sacs. It is obvious, nevertheless, that that which contains is formed for the sake of that which is contained, and is, therefore, made later. And this much, upon the faithful testimony of our eyes, is certain, that the first particle and prime basis of the body are the veins, to which all the other parts are posthumous and superadded. But upon this point we shall say more by and by.

Meantime we may be permitted to smile at that factitious division of the parts into spermatic and sanguineous ; as if any part were produced immediately from the seminal fluid, and all did not spring from the same source !

I return to our subject. The colliquament now extends over more than half the egg. The heart, hanging outwards, is at some short distance from the body. And if you look attentively you may perceive some of the umbilical vessels pulsating.