Excerpt from The Forces Which Carry on the Circulation of the Blood It cannot therefore be reasonably maintained that the labour and ingenuity bestowed by the physiologists of the last century in measuring the force of the heart have been ex pended in vain; and that it is no duty of the physiologists of the present day to recognise gratefully, and form a fair esti mate of those labours, while they join their own efforts to those of their predecessors to attain the end in view; never, however, forgetting that the task is one of ascertained difli culty that much caution and circumspection are necessary in applying the simple principles of Mechanics to the complex actions of living organs; and that to presume to differ from Harvey, or Hales, or Borelli is to contend on their own field with the giants and demigods of a bygone age. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.