Some recently discovered letters of William Harvey, with other miscellanea / by S. Weir Mitchell ; with a bibliography of Harvey's works by Charles Perry Fisher.
- William Harvey
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some recently discovered letters of William Harvey, with other miscellanea / by S. Weir Mitchell ; with a bibliography of Harvey's works by Charles Perry Fisher. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
62/88 page 48
![now seemed different, now another face of Nature arose. For where the longest vein was lying stretched out beyond the obstructing knots, it became softer and more flaccid as the blood slipped out; but where it looked inward, joined to the left of the Heart, it stiffened up, rigid, and swelled out with the oncoming fluid; and the liquor gliding on, shut up in constricted spaces, churned inwardly, enlarged its vital channel, and pressed hard against the restraints of the almost ruptured Heart. Having duly observed these things, the old man immediately loosed^ all the cords, where- upon at once the blood spurted forth with great force and raging ran forth in a headlong stream; and the Heart beat again alternately, the artery renewed its pulse, so much so at least as was possible for the lan- guid limbs of the moribund animal. Harvey, who encountered all things with equa- nimity, after slight delay, at length in these words addressed his dear friends: 'Ye in whose care is dear Health, who mingle sacred cups of healing drugs, and by whose powerful herbs the Fates are delayed, and lives of the wretched prolonged: Receive this into your spirit, and lay it up in your memories, and at length recognize the true causes of life. Different Veins are formed for different uses: these first bedew the flesh with liquors received from the full Heart; those pour back again into the interior of the Heart the returning (liquors). At first the blood forcing its way out from one source gathers strength, and is carried along in [48]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21173370_0062.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
