[388] Pulmonary vein, or rather, left auricle. Galen means a reflux through the mitral orifice; the left auricle was looked on rather as the termination of the pulmonary veins than as a part of the heart. cf. p. 323, [note 4]. He speaks here of a kind of “physiological” mitral incompetence.
[389] Horror vacui.
[392] The “mechanical” principle of horror vacui contrasted with the “physical” or semi-physiological principle of specific attraction. Appropriateness here might almost be rendered affinity or kinship. cf. [note 2,] infra.
[393] “Related,” “akin.” cf. p. 36, [note 2].
[394] The coats exercise the vital traction, the cavities the merely mechanical. cf. p. 165, [note 2].
[396] These fossae were probably the recesses between the columnae carnae.