He is the man
who discovered what is loosely called the 'pulmonary circulation'; and
it really is quite absurd, in the face of the fact, that twenty years
afterwards we find Ambrose Pare, the great French surgeon, ascribing
this discovery to him as a matter of common notoriety, to find that
attempts are made to give the credit of it to other people. So far as
I know, this discovery of the course of the blood through the lungs,
which is called the pulmonary circulation, is the one step in real
advance that was made between the time of Galen and the time of
Harvey. And I would beg you to note that the word "circulation" is
improperly employed when it is applied to the course of the blood
through the lungs. The blood from the right side of the heart, in
getting to the left side of the heart, only performs a half-circle--it
does not perform a whole circle--it does not return to the place from
whence it started; and hence the discovery of the so-called "pulmonary
circulation" has nothing whatever to do with that greater discovery
which I shall point out to you by-and-by was made by Harvey, and which
is alone really entitled to the name of the circulation of the blood.
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