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THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of December, 1768.

ARTICLE I.

An Enquiry into the Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns. Wherein it is demonfirated, that our most celebrated Philofophers have, for the most part, taken what they advance from the Works of the Ancients; and that many important Truths in Religion were known to the Pagan Sages. Tranflated from the French of the Rev. Mr. Dutens, Rector of Elfdon, in the County of Northumberland, &c. With confiderable Additions communicated by the Author. 8vo. Pr. 6s. Griffin. [Concluded.]

W

E have already laid before our readers a fummary view of what this learned and ingenious writer has advanced concerning the difcoveries of the ancients, in logic, natural philofophy, and aftronomy; we now proceed to give an account of what he has obferved relative to their knowledge in medicine, anatomy, botany, optics, mechanics, theology, &c.

The circulation of the blood is generally faid to have been firft difcovered by Dr. Harvey, in 1628: but our author endeavours to fhew, that it was known to the ancients.

It is hard, he fays, to conceive, that Hippocrates knew nothing of it, when we hear him say, that "all the veins communicate with one another, and run into one another *;" that

the veins which spread themselves over the whole body, filling it with fpirit, juice, and motion, are all of them but branches

Hipp, ed., Vander Linden. vol. i. p. 367.
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VOL. XXVI. Dec. 1768.

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of one original vein. I proteft I know not, fays he, where it begins, or where it ends, for in a circle, there is neither beginning nor ending." A little farther, he fays, that the heart is the fource of the arteries, which carry blood into all parts of the body, communicating to them life and heat t." He adds, "that they are the rivulets which cherish the human body, and convey life to every part of man ‡." In another place, he fays, that "the heart and veins are always in motion §.” He compares the course of rivers, which return to their fources in an unaccountable and extraordinary manner, to the circulation of the blood || . . . . . In fhort, fays Mr. Dutens, there are a thousand paffages in the writings of Hippocrates, by which it clearly appears, that he knew the circulation of

the blood.

In fome of thefe quotations, our author has not accurately represented the sense of the original. Hippocrates does not say, that the arteries carry blood into all parts of the body; but that "the liver is the fource of the veins, and the heart the fource of the arteries; and that from thefe (the liver and the heart) blood, fpirit, and heat, are diffused through every part.”

In the last quotation, the words of Mr. Dutens may lead the reader to imagine, that Hippocrates fpeaks of rivers returning to their fources; but he mentions no fuch thing. He only tells us, what dreams about rivers denote; and aquatos Teprodor is the only expreffion in the paffage referred to, which can be supposed to countenance our author's opinion, that Hippocrates knew the circulation of the blood.

This notion, however, has been maintained by Vander Linden, Hartman, Ch. Patin, L. Heifter, and many others. Hippocrates indeed speaks of the motion of the blood. But there is not one paffage in his writings, from which it can be inferred, that he had any juft or precife idea of its circulation. We cannot fuppofe, that his knowledge of the mechanism of the human body was either clear or extenfive. Anatomy was very little known in his days. When he went to Abdera, at the request of the inhabitants, to cure Democritus of a supposed madnefs, he found him diffecting animals. In the course of their conference, the philofopher faid to him, "When I cut up these animals, it is not that I abhor the works of God, * μισεων θεσ Epa& but it is in order to difcover the nature

Hipp. ed. Vander Lind. vol. i. p. 304.

+ Ibid. p. 596

Ibid. p. 116,

Ibid. p. 291.

Ibid. p. 640.

and

and feat of the bile *."-Would he have made fuch an apology as this to Hippocrates, if diffections had been usual at that time? or, if he was afraid that his diffecting of brutes might be thought an impiety, can we fuppofe, that he attempted to anatomize the bodies of men ?-The ancients, we know, abhorred the touch of a dead body. Pliny fays, afpici humana exta nefas habetur † ; and Dion Caffius tells us, that Tiberius had a particular privilege to touch the body of Auguftus, otherwise it was not lawful . Even in the fecond century, human bodies were feldom opened; and Galen was often obliged to diffect apes inftead of men, which fometimes led him into great mistakes.

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The next to Hippocrates, fays Mr. Dutens, is Plato, who speaks with clearness of the circulation of the blood. He tells us, that "from the heart fpring the veins and blood, which with rapidity carries itself into all parts §." Ariftotle too regards the heart as the origin and fountain of the veins and blood. He says, that from the heart there arises two veins, one on the right, and the other on the left fide; and he was the first who called this aorta. He held, that "the arteries had a communication with the veins, and that they were intimately connected ." Julius Pollux, in his Onomafticon, speaking of the heart, fays, that it hath two cavities, the one of which communicates with the arteries, the other with the veins. Apuleius, in explaining the doctrine of Plato, afferts," that the blood on its leaving the heart, makes its courfe along the lungs to fpread itself afterwards into all parts of the body ¶.' And Nemefius, bishop of Emiffa, who lived in the fourth century, in his book de Natura Hominis, fays, that "the motion of the pulfe owes its origin to the heart, and particularly to the left ventricle of that vifcera. The cardiac artery expands and contracts itself with very much force, but always with great regularity and harmony of motion. In its expansion, it draws in the moft fubtile parts of the blood from the adjoining veins; and of the exhalation or vapours of that blood forms the aliment of the vital fpirits: and in its contraction exhales all the fumes brought into it, by fecret paffages from all parts of the body." So far the ancients.

2

See Hippocrates's letter to Damagetus.

In Procem. lib. 28.

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§ Plato in Timæo.

Ariftot. de Part. Animal. 1. iii. c. 4.

De dogmate Plat. Ed. Aldi, p. 200.

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In 1553, Servetus, in the fifth part of his book De Chriftia nifmi Reftitutione, has treated more diftin&tly of the circulation of the blood *.

Andreas Cefalpinus, who lived likewife in the 16th century, explains at length "how the blood, gushing from the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery to pass into the lungs, enters anaftomofically into the pulmonary veins, to be conveyed to the left ventricle of the heart, and afterwards diftributed by the aorta into all parts of the body."

Leonicenus fays, that the famous Paul Sarpi, a Venetian, difcovered the circulation: that he communicated the secret to Fab. ab Aquapendente, profeffor of medicine at Padua, in the 16th century, who discovered it to Harvey, at that time studying phyfic under him in that university.

This is the fubftance of what our author has advanced upon this topic. He might have obferved, that Sir George Ent has fhewn, that Sarpi received the first notion of the circulation of the blood from Harvey's book on that fubject, which was carried to Venice by the ambassador of the Republic at the court of England. Be this as it may, every competent judge must allow, that no writer before Dr. Harvey has explained the circulation with any degree of accuracy and precifion. All the notions of his predeceffors are confused and imperfect. He was the first who explained its principal circumstances, and placed it in a clear and fatisfactory light.—Let us now return to Mr. Dutens.

Ruffus Ephefius, 1600 years ago, described the varicous paraftate, called by us the Fallopian tubes. "In examining the womb of a beast, I found, he fays, arifing from the ovaries certain dus, which, entwisted into each other, were entirely varicous; and, at their farther extremity, entered into the cavity of the womb... I am firmly perfuaded, they are feminal veffels of the very fame ftructure with those in males, called the varicous paraftate."

In order to fhew the great advances which the ancients made in chirurgery, our author has given a new translation of part of a memoir on that fubject, by Mr. Charles Bernard, first surgeon to king William. This piece contains a detail of what the ancients knew in furgery. But as it has long fince appeared in Mr. Wotton's Reflections on ancient and modern Learning, we shall take no farther notice of it in this place.

It is alfo

* This paffage is cited at large by our author. quoted by Mr. Wotton in his Reflections upon ancient and modern Learning. The book above-mentioned is the work for which Calvin caused Servetus to be burnt at Geneva, O&, 27, 1553

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Mr. Dutens comes now to the chymistry of the ancients. Here is an ample field for fpeculation and enquiry. Among the first instances of chymical operations, he mentions that of Mofes relative to the Golden Calf. How, fays he, without the aid of chymistry, could he have diffolved it; and that too without applying corrofives, which would have poifoned all who had afterwards drunk of the waters? Yet this is to be done, and in a short time too, tho' there be but one way of doing it. "Frederic the IIId. king of Denmark, curious to put this opera. tion in practice, engaged fome able chymifts of his time to attempt it. After many trials, they at laft fucceeded, but it was in following the method of Mofes, by first of all reducing the gold into fmall parts by means of fire, and then pounding it in a mortar (along with water to be fure) till it was fo far diffolved as to become potable' To corroborate this opinion, our author obferves, that the famous Joel Langelotte affirms in his works, that gold may be entirely diffolved by attrition alone; and Hamberg affures us, that by pounding for a long while certain metals, and even gold itself, in plain water, those bodies have been fo entirely diffolved, as to become potable.

How the ancients formed that cement, which they applied in rearing those monuments which fill fubfift, remains a fecret yet to us unknown; though it be paft all doubt, that they prepared it in a chymical way, fo hidden however to us, that we daily lament the lofs of it. The numberlefs mummics which ftill endure, after fo long a courfe of ages, ought to af-certain to the Egyptians the glory of having carried chymistry to a degree of perfection attained but by few. In their mummies alone there is fuch a feries and contexture of operations, that fome of them ftill remain unknown, notwithstanding all the attempts of fome of the ableft moderns to recover them. The art of embalming bodies, for example, and of preserving them for many ages, is abfolutely loft; and never could have been carried fo far as it was by the Egyptians, without the greatest skill in chymistry. All the effays to reftore this art, have proved ineffectual; nor have the reiterated analyses made of mummies, to discover the ingredients of which they were compofed, had any better fuccefs. Some moderns have attempted, by certain preparations, to preferve dead bodies intire, but all to no purpofe. The mummies of Lewis de Bils, who was regarded as eminent in that way, are already in a state

corruption. There were alfo, in thofe mummies of Egypt, many things befides, which fall within the verge of chymistry: fuch as their gilding, so very fresh, as if it were but of fifty years ftanding; and their ftained filk, fo vivid in its colours,

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