Title: Blood vessel
Content: between the blood and the tissues; and the veins, which carry blood from the capillaries back toward the heart. The word "vascular", meaning relating to the blood vessels, is derived from the Latin "vas", meaning vessel. A few structures (such as cartilage and the lens of the eye) do not contain blood vessels and are labeled. The arteries and veins have three layers. The middle layer is thicker in the arteries than it is in the veins: Capillaries consist of little more than a layer of endothelium and occasional connective tissue. When blood vessels connect to form a region of

Title: Amato Lusitano
Content: arteries as well as the veins. It is obvious that this hypothesis was supported by the fact that the network of arteries and veins becomes thinner and thinner as they get farther from the heart. It was also assumed that the networks are not connected, so the blood cannot pass from one network to the other. (The microscope was not yet invented, so one could not view capillary arteries without aid.) Dr. Amatus Lusitanus described in the Centuria I, paragraph (Curatio) 513, how, in 1547, he performed an experiment before some scholars from the University of Ferrara. He blew air

Title: Artery
Content: are the smallest of the blood vessels and are part of the microcirculation. The microvessels have a width of a single cell in diameter to aid in the fast and easy diffusion of gases, sugars and nutrients to surrounding tissues. Capillaries have no smooth muscle surrounding them and have a diameter less than that of red blood cells; a red blood cell is typically 7 micrometers outside diameter, capillaries typically 5 micrometers inside diameter. The red blood cells must distort in order to pass through the capillaries. These small diameters of the capillaries provide a relatively large surface area for

Title: Vein
Content: they were for transport of air. The Greek physician, Herophilus, distinguished veins from arteries but thought that the pulse was a property of arteries themselves. Greek anatomist Erasistratus observed that arteries that were cut during life bleed. He ascribed the fact to the phenomenon that air escaping from an artery is replaced with blood that entered by very small vessels between veins and arteries. Thus he apparently postulated capillaries but with reversed flow of blood. In 2nd century AD Rome, the Greek physician Galen knew that blood vessels carried blood and identified venous (dark red) and arterial (brighter and thinner)

Title: Blood vessel
Content: diffuse vascular supply it is called an anastomosis. Anastomoses provide critical alternative routes for blood to flow in case of blockages. There is a layer of muscle surrounding the arteries and the veins which help contract and expand the vessels. This creates enough pressure for blood to be pumped around the body. Blood vessels are part of the circulatory system, together with the heart and the blood. The biggest difference in the structure of arteries and veins is the presence of valves. Backflow of blood is prevented in arteries by the heart. However in veins, one-direction valves are used to

Question: What are the very narrow blood vessels which form a network between arteries and veins?
Answer: Capillaries