Some time before Harvey’s discovery, Cesalpinus had described with great precision the pulmonary circulation; and, on finding that veins swelled under a ligature, he attributed this enlargement to the warmth of the blood. This warmth, he says, proceeds from a spirit residing in the blood. The left ventricle is filled with blood of a spirituous nature; and one can trace the movement of the blood towards the superior parts, and its return (retrocessus) to the internal ones,—that is to say, a return by which it comes back from the extremities to the heart, when awake or sleeping, from every part of the body; for if you tie the vessels, or if they are obstructed, the current of the blood is stopped, and then their smaller ramifications tumefy towards their origin. The following are his words: “Sic non obscurus est ejusmodi motus in quâcumque corporis parte, si vinculum adhibeatur, aut aliâ ratione occludantur venæ: cùm enim tollitur permeatio, intumescunt rivuli quâ parte fluere solent.” From these expressions it is clear that Cesalpinus suspected the great circulation, and had a fair idea of its nature; yet there is no doubt but that it was to our Harvey that the first demonstration of this wondrous function was reserved.
DRUNKENNESS.
At all periods this degrading vice appears to have been more or less prevalent. We find it frequently mentioned in the early history of the Jews. Tacitus informs us that it was common amongst the ancient Germans; and in Greece and Rome it was not only common, but frequently extolled as beneficial—as medicinal:
Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
Horâ matutinâ rebibas, et erit medicina.
Socrates considered the indulgence in wine pardonable. Thus, C. Gallus:
Hoc quoque virtutem quondam certamine, magnum
Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt.
According to Horace, Cato the Censor had often recourse to its exhilarating virtues:
Narratur et prisci Catonis
Sæpe mero incaluisse virtus.
Seneca informs us that even the Roman ladies frequently indulged in these potations. The drunkenness of the ancients bore all the disgusting character of the present day, and was thus admirably described by Lucretius: