RECAPITULATION.
The points to which the attention of the scientific
physician is particularly called in the preceding
Essay, are :
1. The distinction between the ultimate minute
arteries, the true capillaries, and the first roots and
minute trunks of the veins ;
2. The successive divisions of the minute
arteries, the continual conjunctions and redivisions
of the capillaries, and the successive conjunctions
and occasional anastomoses of the veins;
3. The characteristic rapid flow of the blood
along the arteries, and its retarded flow along the
capillaries and veins ;
4. The singular differences in the form and distribution
of these vessels in the systemic and
pulmonary systems ; especially,
5. The more abrupt divisions of the arteries, the
more crowded number of the capillaries, and the
abrupt formation of the veins, in the latter ;
6. The extensive power of the heart in the circulation,
the irritability of the arteries, the want of
evidence of irritability in the true capillaries, and
the effect of the respiratory and other muscular
motions upon the course of the blood along the
veins ;
7. The doubt whether the true capillaries be
real vessels or mere canals ;
8. The temporary independence of the action of
the heart and of the minute and capillary circulation,
of the brain and the medulla oblongata and
spinalis ;
9. The power of the heart to continue the circulation
in the minute and capillary vessels, after its
entire removal from the body, in opposition to the
opinion of Legallois ;
10. The independence of the circulation of respiration
and of that part of the medulla on which
respiration depends, in opposition to the opinion
of M. Flourens ;
11. The independence of the capillary circulation
of a part, upon that part of the spinal marrow
from which it derives its nerves, in opposition to