Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-03
Anticipa,ions by the poets Of diseoveris, in

Anticipa;ions by the poets Of discoveries in
science are nearly always more figures ofspeech.
beautiful and impressive such and remarka-
bic a. snintended prophecies, but not to be ac-
copied as foreSlimpses Of scientific facts. Such
Is the expression OF Puck in Midsummer
Nights Dream whom Oberon, King OF the
Fsirios sends him on a mission to bring him o
certain flower, 'TIl put a girdle round about
the earth in forty minutes" The Puck Of the
telegraph and the cable has made good the prom
ise of Shakspere's airy minion, no thanks, how
ever. to the poets knowledge or prescience Of
electricity and its handmaiden arts. But such
. scholarly bard Of ar earlier day as Dante
might well DO expected to know everything
known In his age that could illustrate the sub
spirit to prefgrro modern culture. And so,
turning curiously TO the exile's noble work
Tho Divine Comedy" many obscure
tdbits of Learning are found Nor il this
all Hitherto II is probable that men of
letters and men of science alike have altogether
failed to SEQ in tho 18th canto Of the Purgstory,
or second part OF the Italians great vision,
evidence tina. he anticipated in the rough by
more than three centuries Harveys discovery
OF the circulation Of the blood. His theory in
the entire canto was derived from an Arabian
philosopher. his commentators say, but they
fail to recognize medical statement Of OBJ
viously high import in his elaborate ;lescrip-
tion Of the process of life and oven in the words
"Dlood in tine heart derives ehectual
virtue, that Informs the several human limbs.
as being that which passes through the veins
itself to make them," and other words pointing
to tho heart as the recognized seat of physical
activity. Averrhoes, the most famous Of
Arabian philosophers, whose medical work,
the Coliget, seems TO have been the authority
Tor Dante's singular description, was born
1l2o-just two centuries. lacking one year, be-
fore Dante died-at Cordova, Spain,
then the seat Of culture and dominion
OF the Saraccns, or Moors. The most remark
able thing about the whole matter is not
that he should have discovered, as Dante an
nounced 10 Europe, the circulation Of the blood
through the heart and the governing power Of
the heart in the system, but that such scholarly
critics and popular writers as Matthew Arnold,
such learned translators and annotators as Cary
aud LonSfellow, should have never suspected
what q wonderful fact was slipping through
their fingers. Perhaps in explanation it
will be denied that either the philosopher or
the poet knew what he was talking about, be-
cause he did not put into practice in the
medical schools and hand down to US the full
results Of the theory stated. In that way sew
ersl grand discoveries may have been ap-
propriAted by later Investigators There is
nothing to show that Harvey stole his any
more than there is to show that Christopher Co
lumbus stole his laurels. In either case-the Ara
bian or the Norse-the discovery had been hid
ensway and forgotten. Still, it is very singular
indeed that in the full blaze Of 10th century
science and culture the fact seems to be IN
known that the discovery of the circulation of
the blood in its outline was made in the 18th
Century IN Moorish Spain and n.ade known early
IN the 18th century in Italy.