The Morning herald., 1875-10-15
Masvey, Discovers Of the Cfrea's'
tion OfRl0od.

=
tien ofRlsed.
! The late Hors,io Stone, sculptor, who's
1 works, atlsrn ost pn,ional capital, sn|
whose death Was recently announced by ca
bic as having taken place at Csrara, III
Italy, was devotse II science As wen 4:
Of AT. Perhaps his early education As
physician may have contributed to The Dc
velopment Of these twin tastes which he
sought to CRAFTY by making art itself do
hon. Z % science. He left very many beau
tit Il worts b hinl him +; am n :.,he rest, a
statue Of Harvey, who discovered the cir.
sala,ion Of the blood, that great fact from
which modern physiology takes its base,
and which marks the advent and accession
Of the moderns to scientific power and in
dependence. .....-.. -.
| DR.. Stone appreciated the dignity Of his
earlier profession, and endeavored to do 1t
worthy honor in selecting as a subject for
his chisel one of its most distinguished
members, an original thinker, an earntst
Investigator, who gave new impulse to
physiological science, and to whom it is
no e1aggerasion to say the medical profes-
sion is more indebted to-day than to any Of
, lis members since the DAYS ofEelen and
Aristotle
Before Harvey they had followed the
,ncients, since his time hey had dared to
walk alone, to think for themselves to ex-
pertinent, iissect, auali.e and search out
the truths of tie science they profess, and
the mysteries Of the animal organism.
What history is involved in the long p-
riod between Gelen and Harvey-the slow
steps which led to the n,omentus discovery
OF the latter, and the obstacles which were
interposed BY the organized interests Of
churchcraft and medical conservatism to
any advancement in science Three inn
portant errsrs had to be swept away before
Harvey could arrive at his grand conclu-
sion. Erasistratus. the author of the first
believed tha. the arteries contained not
blood, hut air only that the arteries were
channels which we hrea.hed only to fill,
whence their name, derived from two
Greek words signitying to draw air. Grlen
found that the arteries contained blood
cnlv, ana assailed successfully the air the
orv Which had hitherto prevailed. He
maintained that the ar drawn in
by res.'iration did net pass into the
arteries, tut that its purpose was
to cool the blood. While We know that
instead Of cooling the blood, respiration
warns it, being the source of animal heat:
nevertheless Gelen's idea was an advance
in science by demo!ishing the error that
the arteries were filed with air, step
watch had to be made before further pro-
gress. G@len believed that there was a
pat in the partition o. diaphram which
separates the two ventriclcs of the heart,
because the veins, like the arteries, carried
the blood to the members. This was error
the second, but it was the first in lica,ion
Of two kinds Of biood-the arterial and the
vencus, and that was au advance, 1t was
not until Eseale, tie father CT molern
anatomy, dared to assert the non-existence
Of any passages through the partition d.
vldiHg the ventric.e. Of the heart tl.st this
error met with any serious question. 1t
had been accepted by the profession as one
ofGalen's dogmas although susceptible of
being disproyed at any time.
The next step was the discovery Of the
pulmonary circulation, due to -Serve,us,
and, singularly enough, contained in the
book wAich brought him to a hereto.
death, entitled, "Chris,ianismi Restitutior
the R~s'it 'tion of Christianity. In the
oiogy, he maintained the literal sense Of
the text, The blood is the life hence, his
researches into the formation of the blood,
and the int:-ences which led him to the
pulmonary circulation. lie declared that
the communication, or passage Of the
blood from the right ven!r:cle into the left
was not made by the partition between
them, "but BY long and wonderful de-
tour the blood is conducted through the
lungs, where it is agita.ed and prepared
where it becomes yellow and passes from
the ar'er'al vein into the verous artery"
Old John Calvin burnt Serve,us at the
stake for this sort Of here.y.
Six years afterwards Columbus, of P..-
dua, discovered independently the pulmo-
nary circulation, and finally Cesalpin did
the same and ooll II ot.~~.:. A.