| The discovery and proposal of the theory of blood circulation has of epoch-making significance in the history of Western medicine,and it has led medicine to the path of scientific development.In the historical development of anatomy,the study of blood circulation has never stopped.As early as 4000 to 5000 years ago,humans began to record some phenomena related to blood movement.After that,the heart and blood vessels had been recorded in papyrus manuscript in ancient Egypt.It was believed that the blood vessels spread throughout the body,and the heart was the center of blood vessels.In addition,the manuscript also recorded that people measured the pulse as an important indicator to assess the heart condition.Doctors and anatomists in ancient Greece also studied the relationship between the heart and blood vessels,but they thought that blood flowed in the veins,and the arteries filled with air from the lungs.The ancient Rome doctor Galen discovered blood vessels filled with blood by dissecting the living animals later,and proposed that blood flowed back and forth in a one-way straight line either in veins or in arteries,like a tidal wave that moved up and down in one direction.At the same time,Galen also put forward the well-known "septum micropore" hypothesis that believed that blood from the right ventricle could flow into the left ventricle through a hole that was invisible to naked eyes.Galen’s theory of blood movement was regarded as the truth in the2-16 th century.In the 16 th Century,Belgian anatomist Vesalius questioned Galen’s blood movement hypothesis by anatomical experiments.The issue of the earliest proponent of the pulmonary circulation has long been debated in the academic community.The focus of the debate was mainly on the three researchers,Nafis,Servetus and Colombo.Italian anatomist Fabriciusab described the structure,position and distribution of venous valves in1574.The discovery of venous valves is of great significance to the establishment of blood circulation theory.British doctor Harvey inherited the theoretical achievements of his predecessors,and he eventually established the blood circulation theory through repeated experiments in 1628.However,Harvey could not explain the key issue of how arterial blood and venous blood transformed.Until 1661,the Italian anatomist Malpighi discovered the capillary network between arteries and veins with the aid of a microscope,which enabled Harvey’s blood circulation theory to be perfect.During thousands of years of exploration and discovery,influenced by factors such as cultural movements,political struggles and religious reforms in different eras,the blood circulation theory has undergone periodic development,and it has become increasingly scientific in the constant replacement of old and new theories.At the same time,the ever-improving of blood circulation theory has laid a solid theoretical foundation for the establishment and development of many disciplines in the western basic medicine in the later period. |
