Experiments upon the circulation of the blood, throughout the vascular system : on languid circulation, on the motion of the blood, independent of the action of the heart, and on the pulsations of the arteries / by the Abbe Spallanzani ; with notes, and a sketch of the literary life of the author, by J. Tourdes ; translated into English, and illustrated with additional notes, by R. Hall.

  • Lazzaro Spallanzani
Date:
1801
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments upon the circulation of the blood, throughout the vascular system : on languid circulation, on the motion of the blood, independent of the action of the heart, and on the pulsations of the arteries / by the Abbe Spallanzani ; with notes, and a sketch of the literary life of the author, by J. Tourdes ; translated into English, and illustrated with additional notes, by R. Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    tended them to salamanders, tadpoles, dcquatic and land frogs, and to g] ey and green coloured human species. It seldom happens that persons whdse^ strait and lengthened chest sustains a long slender neck, are celebrated for scientific attainments ; at least, it may safely be asserted, that the most distinguished men of sci- ence have^ in general, very short necks, and that their heads almost touch tiicir shoulders; in consequence of this circumstance, they ordinarily die of apoplexy.— VI. In considering the scale of animated beings, thevas- 'cular system claims a prior regard to that of the nerves, and comes immediately after the digestive organs.— VII. The nerves, by means of their infinite ramifica- tions, maintain the most intimate connexion with the different parts of the body: but the sanguifei-ous system, composed of a prodigious number of arteries and veins, has, likevNise a very close relation with the various or- gans, to which it supplies the matter necessary for in- creasing their mass, repairing iheir losses. Sec.—VIII. The argument which makes most strongly for the nerves^ consists in the rapidity of their action—rapidity which nearly equals that of lightning; whereas the functions of the vascular system, being subordinate to the course of a fluid, the momentum and velocity .of which are in- cessantly varied by a thousand obstacles, must be per^. formed in a very slow and progressive manner. The illustrations which I might give of these different propositions, would far exceed the limits of a note. I shall, therefore, reserve them for a particular essay on the reciprocal action of the organic systems.. lizards^
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