THE HEART

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1614, 20 July 1887, Page 3

THE HEART

I At Cooper Medical College recently Dr Henry Glbbs delivered another of the leotures of the Lane series, the subject ! being the 'Heart and Its Disorders.' A good audience was present. The lecturer said that some two oeuturies ago the circulation" of tbe blood" was discovered by Harvey. That great ' disoo very did | not spring Minervalike from the brain of one iran, but was arrived. at step by step. The existence of the heart arterieß was known to scientists three centuries ago That the arteries and yelps held blood was demonstrated by Hippoorates and Galen before the Christian era. At the end of the sixteenth oentury it was sopposed that the heart sent the blood to the longs to nourish them. It was known that the heart beat, and its pulsations were supposed to be oaused by the arterial blood rising and ebbing like the flowing tide. The veins were expressed by Bhake»peare, who seemi to have known something of everything, m 'The Merchant of Venlc3, were the words., ' 1 freely told you of all the blood I have m my veins'; and again iQ"' Love's Labor Lost,' where ha speaks 'of the ( nimble sports m the arteries.' Servius was the first who gave a description of pulmonary circulation. Febriciutf of Padua, where Harvey wtfnt to complete bis medical edooatlon, also understood the question of circulation as it wbb then known, la 1593 Olsslpimuß of Pisa also advanoed theories on .the subject ; indeed,- all Italy at the time of Harvey's. visit. there was all7e with hypotheses and theories on the flowing of the blood- through the veins. In England it was aot for fourteen years after that Harvey finally made the great discovery, and twelve more yaara elapsed btfore his views and discoveries were published. Charles I. was so' great a patron of Harvey that it becamo the fashion of tbe court to be present at the great anatomist's experiments. The'Zeoturer then, by aid of diagrams explained to the audienca the various offices performed by the valves aud other mechanical contrivances of tbe heart.