The arteries or “air pipes” were supposed, according to this theory of Hippocrates, to contain an ærial fluid.
These pipes and these conveyances of our blood. Coriolanus, Act V., Sc. I.
Universal plodding poisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries. Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV., Sc. III.
My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. Hamlet, Act I., Sc. IV.
It is more reasonable to suppose that Shakespeare did not tie himself down to any one theory concerning the circulation, but that sometimes he had in mind the theory of Michael Servetus, (to which all the heart allusions will apply), and at other times that of Hippocrates, (which accounts for all the thoughts regarding the liver as the propeller of the blood through the veins). The immortal Harvey was the first to point out the true idea of the circulation: the idea that the blood was forced by the heart through the arteries, a pure live-supporting fluid; that it went to the extreme parts of the body, giving nutriment, taking up impurities, and then returning by way of the veins to the heart,—thence to the lungs to be purified before being again sent out on it’s life-sustaining journey. None of the quotations from Shakespeare express this idea, excepting perhaps one, and that rather vaguely.
The tide of blood in me Hath proudly flow’d in vanity, till now; Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea, Where it shall mingle with the state of floods, And flow henceforth in formal majesty. Henry IV—2d, Act V., Sc. II.
We can not believe, however that he possessed the knowledge of Harvey’s theory, and can only say in his own words:
There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on it’s outward parts.
The physiology of the digestive system is excellently described in Coriolanus.
Men. There was a time, when all the body’s members Rebell’d against the belly; thus accus’d it: That only like a gulf it did remain I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And mutually participate, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answer’d * * * * with a kind of smile, Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus, For, look you, I may make the belly smile, As well as speak,—it tauntingly replied To the discontented members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt. * * *