Harvey and the transit of the blood from the arteries to the veins 'per porositates' / by W.S. Forbes.

  • Forbes, William Smith, 1831-1905.
Date:
1878
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Harvey and the transit of the blood from the arteries to the veins 'per porositates' / by W.S. Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    page 97, “ Denique dare apparet assertio nostra, continue et continenter sanguine per pulmonum porositates permeare, de dextro in ventriculum si- nistrum,” etc. In chapter XI. page 126 “ (vel per anastomosin immediate, vel mediate per carnis porositates, vel utroque modo), transire ab arteriis in venas.” In the Rotterdam edition of 1648, the two letters to Riolanus do not appear, having been written at a later period ; but these letters are in all the other editions to which I have alluded. Now these letters were written by Harvey for the purpose of explaining further his views concern- ing the circulation, and should be taken as of equal force with the text. In the hrst letter, on i^age 189, we find, “Non enim tanto sanguine quantum pars quaeris in suis arteriis, venis et perositatibus ubique conti- net, pro alimento utitur.” And on page 191, “ de porositatibus in venu- las.” And on page 193, “ Verum amplius, quod ipse sanguis 6 porositati- bus partium regrediatur,” etc. And on page 268, and in tlie second letter, “ut exinde fluxus sanguinis et citatior cursus, per arterias exiles, partium porositates, venarumque omnium ramos, necessario fiat, et exinde circula- tip.” In the second letter, page 277, we have, in the three editions I have men- tioned, “Omnesque per arterias a corde, per partium porositates, in venas, et per venas, ad cordis basin.” In the Royal College of Physicians’ edition, page 138, the comma so emphatic after porositates, and also that one after ])er venas, are both omitted. Manifestly by so doing a distinction, an emphasis is done away with, and that, too, in a place where Harvey was veiy explicit. Again in the fourteenth chapter of Harvey’s text, -and in tlie four editions I have alluded to, which are the only ones I liave access to, but which in this chapter are uniform, totidem verbis et syllabis, we have “et immittatur, atque in venas et porositates carnis obrepat, et per ipsas, undique de circumferentia ad centrum.” In the Royal College of Physicians’ edition of 1766, page 65, we find that the comma after ipsas is omitted, and that the word “venas” is inserted between ipsas and undique, thereby changing the meaning of Harvey. Surely these are grave errors, made by the learned editors. To show both the onward course of the blood, as well as the continuous walls of the vessels in which it flowed, Harvey says on page 168 (Rotter- dam edition, 1661), “Adeo ut ultimae divisiones capillares arteriosae videantur venae, non solum constitutione, sed et officio.” In plain English, “So that the ultimate capillary divisions of tlie arteries appear like the veins, not merely in constitution, but also in function.” On page 141 (Rot- terdam edition 1661), “Nam duos contrarios motus in capillari propagine, chyli sursum, sanguinis deorsum, [in]convenienter et [im]probabiliter fieri existimare necesse esset.” In English, “ Two contrary motions in the capil- lary set, chyle going one way and blood in the reverse way, can not well exist.” Harvey well knew that if “ ductus” and “ capillares” would permit jiossibly of a current iir one way and then in the reverse way, “porositates”