Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 2 of 2).djvu/72

 590 ANATOMICAL EXAMINATION

married as a widow in his hundred-and-twentieth year, did not deny that he had intercourse with her after the manner of other husbands with their wives, nor until about twelve years back had he ceased to embrace her frequently.

The chest was broad and ample; the lungs, nowise fungous, adhered, especially on the right side, by fibrous bands to the ribs. They were much loaded with blood, as we find them in cases of peripneumony, so that until the blood was squeezed out they looked rather blackish. Shortly before his death I had observed that the face was livid, and he suffered from dif- ficult breathing and orthopnoea. This was the reason why the axillee and chest continued to retain their heat long after his death : this and other signs that present themselves in cases of death from suffocation were observed in the body.

"We judged, indeed, that he had died suffocated, through in- ability to breathe, and this view was confirmed by all the phy- sicians present, and reported to the King. "When the blood was expressed, and the lungs were wiped, their substance was beheld of a white and almost milky hue.

The heart was large, and thick, and fibrous, and contained a considerable quantity of adhering fat, both in its circum- ference and over its septum. The blood in the heart, of a black colour, was dilute, and scarcely coagulated ; in the right ventricle alone some small clots were discovered.

In raising the sternum, the cartilages of the ribs were not found harder or converted into bone in any greater degree than they are in ordinary men ; on the contrary, they were soft and flexible.

The intestines were perfectly sound, fleshy., and strong, and so was the stomach : the small intestines presented several constrictions, like rings, and were muscular. "Whence it came that, by day or night, observing no rules or regular times for eating, he was ready to discuss any kind of eatable that was at hand; his ordinary diet consisting of sub-rancid cheese, and milk in every form, coarse and hard bread, and small drink, generally sour whey. On this sorry fare, but living in his home, free from care, did this poor man attain to such length of days. He even ate something about midnight shortly before his death.

The kidneys were bedded in fat, and in themselves suffi-

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