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The
“Christianismi Restitutio” (the “Restoration
of Christianity”) (1553) contains the first
written description in Western Europe of the minor circulation
of blood (i.e. the route of the blood from the heart to
the lungs and viceversa). Those who wonder why this scientific
discovery is contained in a theological book, they can
find the answer in the nature of the system of thought
of Servetus. As a son of the Renaissance, Servetus considered
that theology, medicine, philosophy and the rest of sciences
were not separated compartments, but interrelated sciences
that allowed men to understand the Universe as a whole. |
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Servetus
discovers the circulation of the blood because understanding
the sensitive world helped him to better grasp the relationship
between God and mankind. For Servetus, the man can aspire
to communicate with God following the example of God.
It seems that for Servetus there is not a straight forward
distinction between the divine and the human nature,
but both interplay along the spectrum. For the communication
between God and mankind to take place, Servetus contented
that there must be within the man a spark of divinity,
that Servetus identified with the soul of the man. According
to the Biblical tradition, the soul was infused by God
into man’s nostrils through the breathing. Since
the breathing has the purpose of purifying the blood,
Servetus understood why the Hebrew tradition postulates
that the soul is in the blood. Servetus thought that,
if the soul is in the blood, the best way to understand
its journey through the human body was to study the
blood circulation:
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"The
divine spirit is found in the blood and is in itself
the blood or the blood spirit. It is not that the divine
spirit is found mainly in the walls of the heart or
in the parenchyma of the liver or brain, but in the
blood, as God himself taught us in Genesis. 9; Leviathan.
7 and Deutenonomium. 12.” (Christianismi Restitutio,
p. 170).
In
its quest, Servetus discovers that, contrary Galen’s
approach towards blood circulation, the transmission
of the blood from the right ventricle of the heart to
the left ventricle does not take place through pores
of the middle wall of the heart, but rather by means
of a great contrivance which pumps blood forward from
the right ventricle towards the lungs for its oxygenation,
and transfuses it afterwards to the left ventricle of
the heart.
Servetus
explained that:
“The
vital spirit has its origin in the left ventricle
of the heart, and the lungs contribute mostly to its
production. It is produced in the lungs when the air
inhaled is combined with the elaborated subtle blood
that the right ventricle of the heart transmits to
the left. But this communication does not take place
through the middle wall of the heart as it is usually
believed, but rather, by means of a great contrivance,
the subtle blood is pumped forward from the right
ventricle of the heart to a large circuit through
the lungs. In the lungs [blood] is elaborated and
becomes red, and it is transfused from the pulmonary
artery (arterial vein) to the pulmonary vein (venous
artery). Later, in the same pulmonary vein it mingles
with the air inspired and through expiration it is
purified again of the dark vapors... Thus, not only
air is sent from the lungs to the heart, but air mixed
with blood through the pulmonary artery. Therefore,
the mixture takes place in the lungs. The red color
is given to it in the lungs, and not in the heart.
There is not enough room in the left ventricle of
the heart for such a big and abundant mixture, nor
the mechanism to give blood its red color. Finally,
the ventricular partition, since it is lacking in
vessels and mechanisms, it is not permeable to the
blood though something may possibly sweat through.”
(Christianismi Restitutio, p. 169-170).
Written and translated by Sergio Baches Opi.
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