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An anatomical disquisition on the motion of the heart & blood in animals cover

An anatomical disquisition on the motion of the heart & blood in animals

Chapter 19: CHAPTER XIV CONCLUSION OF THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE CIRCULATION
By William Harvey
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The treatise presents systematic anatomical observations and experiments showing that blood moves in a closed circuit propelled by the heart’s rhythmic contractions, distinguishing pulmonary and systemic pathways. It challenges prevailing theories that blood is consumed or passes through invisible cardiac pores, and supports its conclusions with dissections, animal experiments, and measurements that estimate cardiac output. Emphasizing direct observation and quantitative reasoning over received authority, the work outlines methods, results, and logical arguments that establish the heart as the organ responsible for maintaining continuous circulation.

CHAPTER XIV
CONCLUSION OF THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE CIRCULATION

And now I may be allowed to give in brief my view of the circulation of the blood, and to propose it for general adoption.

Since all things, both argument and ocular demonstration, show that the blood passes through the lungs and heart by the action of the [auricles and] ventricles, and is sent for distribution to all parts of the body, where it makes its way into the veins and pores of the flesh, and then flows by the veins from the circumference on every side to the centre, from the lesser to the greater veins, and is by them finally discharged into the vena cava and right auricle of the heart, and this in such a quantity or in such a flux and reflux thither by the arteries, hither by the veins, as cannot possibly be supplied by the ingesta, and is much greater than can be required for mere purposes of nutrition; it is absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood in the animal body is impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless motion; that this is the act or function which the heart performs by means of its pulse; and that it is the sole and only end of the motion and contraction of the heart.