On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals

William Harvey

• Publisher: Passerino
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9791222480282
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (Latin, 'An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Living Beings'), commonly called De Motu Cordis, is the best-known work of the physician William Harvey, which was first published in 1628 and established the circulation of blood throughout the body.
It is a landmark in the history of physiology, with Harvey combining observations, experiments, measurements, and hypotheses in an extraordinary fashion to arrive at his doctrine. His work is a model of its kind and had an immediate and far-reaching influence on Harvey's contemporaries; Thomas Hobbes said that Harvey was the only modern author whose doctrines were taught in his lifetime. In De motu cordis, Harvey investigated the effect of ligatures on blood flow. The book also argued that blood was pumped around the body in a "double circulation", where after being returned to the heart, it is recirculated in a closed system to the lungs and back to the heart, where it is returned to the main circulation. William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart, though earlier writers, such as Realdo Colombo, Michael Servetus, and Jacques Dubois, had provided precursors of the theory. Translated by Robert Willis.

Table of contents

• Cover
• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
• Table of contents
• Introductory Note
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Author’s Motives For Writing
• Chapter 2. On The Motions Of The Heart As Seen In The Dissection Of Living Animals
• Chapter 3. Of The Motions Of The Arteries, As Seen In The Dissection Of Living Animals
• Chapter 4. Of The Motion Of The Heart And Its Auricles, As Seen In The Bodies Of Living Animals
• Chapter 5. Of The Motion, Action And Office Of The Heart
• Chapter 6. Of The Course By Which The Blood Is Carried From The Vena Cava Into The Arteries, Or From The Right Into The Left Ventricle Of The Heart
• Chapter 7. The Blood Passes Through The Substance Of The Lungs From The Right Ventricle Of The Heart Into The Pulmonary Veins And Left Ventricle
• Chapter 8. Of The Quantity Of Blood Passing Through The Heart From The Veins To The Arteries; And Of The Circular Motion Of The Blood
• Chapter 9. That There Is A Circulation Of The Blood Is Confirmed From The First Proposition
• Chapter 10. The First Position: Of The Quantity Of Blood Passing From The Veins To The Arteries. And That There Is A Circuit Of The Blood, Freed From Objections, And Farther Confirmed By Experiment
• Chapter 11. The Second Position Is Demonstrated
• Chapter 12. That There Is A Circulation Of The Blood Is Shown From The Second Position Demonstrated
• Chapter 13. The Third Position Is Confirmed: And The Circulation Of The Blood Is Demonstrated From It
• Chapter 14. Conclusion Of The Demonstration Of The Circulation
• Chapter 15. The Circulation Of The Blood Is Further Confirmed By Probable Reasons
• Chapter 16. The Circulation Of The Blood Is Further Proved From Certain Consequences
• Chapter 17. The Motion And Circulation Of The Blood Are Confirmed From The Particulars Apparent In The Structure Of The Heart, And From Those Things Which Dissection Unfolds