Breaking with Galen: Servetus, Colombo and the lesser circulation
| Autor: | Anthony Seaton |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Literature
Lesser circulation business.industry media_common.quotation_subject Cardiology Heart General Medicine Craft Instinct medicine.anatomical_structure History 16th Century Blood circulation Blood Circulation Humans Medicine Interventricular septum business History 15th Century Skepticism media_common |
| Zdroj: | QJM. 107:411-413 |
| ISSN: | 1460-2393 1460-2725 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/qjmed/hcu039 |
| Popis: | In spite of all his experiments and observations, Leonardo da Vinci failed to discover the circulation of the blood.1 His anatomical drawings and records, made between 1489 and 1513, were unpublished for many years; it remained for others to describe the structure and functions of the cardiovascular system. Until William Harvey, all like Leonardo were inhibited by Galen whose first century writings had become widely available in print in Paris in 1525. The first great anatomical work, De humanis corpori fabrica, was published by Andreas Vesalius in 1543 and, in a revised edition, in 1555. A magnificent annotated translation has recently been published, from which I quote.2 Vesalius quoted Horace; Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri —not given to swear by the words of a master—indicating a healthy scepticism. He based his observations on experience of dissection. Nevertheless, he struggled to suppress an instinct to make his observations fit what were thought to be the facts. In 1543 he wrote, with respect to Galen’s theory that blood passed through the interventricular septum from right to left : The ventricular septum is, as I said, formed of the thickest substance in the heart and is full of pits impressed everywhere into it. Chiefly for this reason it has an uneven surface where it faces the ventricles. None of these pits penetrates from the right ventricle into the left (at least so far as the senses can detect); we are therefore compelled to admire the craft of the Maker of things by which blood seeps through invisible passages from the right ventricle into the left. This passage was omitted in the 1555 edition, in which he wrote: Conspicuous as these pits are, none … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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