On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
by William Harvey · Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
Assigned by 4 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1628
- Language
- Latin
- Length
- Short · 100 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, translated by Kenneth J. FranklinEveryman's Library, 1963Contains De Motu Cordis and the two later letters on circulation in a readable modern translation.
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A seventy-two page Latin treatise published at Frankfurt in 1628 in which Harvey, physician to James I, demonstrates that the blood circulates. Against Galen's view that blood is made in the liver and consumed in the tissues, he shows by vivisection of animals and ligature experiments on human arms that the heart is a pump, that the valves in the veins allow flow only toward the heart, and that the quantity of blood the heart expels in an hour far exceeds what the body could make. He concludes that the same blood must pass from arteries to veins and return, though he could not see the capillaries.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
