Reifler. Milestones in OPRS: Discovery of LPS & Subsequent History Supplemental Digital Content (SDC 6)

SDC 6: The pulmonary circulation: Ibn an-Nafis, Servetus, Colombo, Cesalpino, and Harvey.

A vast and intriguing literature emerged on the interconnected subjects of the discovery of the “lesser circulation,” controversies among historians regarding ascribing priority, and claims of plagiarism against Colombo’s assistant Valverde and Colombo himself. To be clear, until the twentieth century, European anatomists were unaware that Ibn an-Nafis (1213–88) had first described the “lesser” circulation through the lungs in 1242 in a commentary on the cannon of Abu Ali ibn Sina (980–1037).a,b Much attention has been given to Servetus’ trial for heresy, his execution by burning at the stake in Geneva by the order of Calvin, the suppression of his work, and the scarcity and provenances of the three remaining copies of Servetus’ work (viz., in the Royal Vienna Library, the Bibliotheque Nationàle, and the University of Edinburgh Library).c Even an “original” facsimile copy of the Vienna Royal Library edition (Murr: Nuremberg, 1790, relatively rare) was prized by Sir William Osler (1849–1919) who took pains to describe its provenance.d Osler became one of the greatest proponents of Servetus after the medical aspects of Christianismi became known to English physicians in the late nineteenth century,e and it only sharpened his desire to collect Harveian-related works.f Osler recognized the evils of chauvinism in ,g but, in a way, he and the rest of the English-speaking world succumbed to it as evidenced in the following hierarchical categorization of titles in his Bibliotheca: (1) Harvey; (2) The Claimants (Servetus, Columbus, and Cæsalpinus); and Other Claimants (Sarpi, Rudius, and Ruini). Combined, these comprise 225 entries; four of these entries under the title Columbus. Similar to Osler’s categorization, Colombo has been described as a “contender claiming priority for describing the pulmonary circulation,” but, as mentioned, he also has been incorrectly labeled as a “plagiarist.” Colombo was acknowledged with praise for this discovery by others, such as John Banister (1533–1610)h who wrote the following pre-Harveian description of the pulmonary circulation in 1578: But very wyde they wander, sayth Columbus. For the bloud through the arteriall Veyne is carried to the lunges, whence, being attentuated, it is caried by the Reifler. Milestones in OPRS: Discovery of LPS & Subsequent History Supplemental Digital Content (SDC 6)

veniall arterie into the left Ventricle of the hart together with ayre: which no man before his tyme noted or at least have left ertant.i In a later nineteenth-century painting now housed in a library at the University of Glasgow, Banister is depicted giving the Visceral Lecture to the Barber Surgeons in 1581, a long pointer demonstrating the midpoint of an erect skeleton below its sternum.j With magnification, one can read the text of De re Anatomica that is opened behind him. Specifically, it is an abridged excerpt from Book 11 beginning with the second sentence of Chapter 5 and the word ‘Intestina.’ In spite of textual alterations made by the artist, the format and wording of the running headers on the verso and recto sides of the open book are the same as those seen in the 1572 Paris edition published by Andreas Wechelk and the page numbers (pp. 419–20) also correlate with this edition rather than the page numbers of the passage in the first edition (pp. 227–8). Compared to the first edition, the 1572 edition is smaller in size at 170 mm x 110 mm and also lacks the well- known frontispiece.l also acknowledged Colombo’s foundational contributions in his monograph, De motu cordis (1628).m Understandably, Harvey has been the hero of many physicians who have translated and/or commented upon his work.n Perhaps the influence of nationalistic hero-worship influenced the title of this cited translator’s next work which was entitled, William Harvey, Englishman.o Duke-Elder lauded Harvey as the “founder of scientific embryology” for his publication, Exercitationis de generatione (1651),p though Harvey’s Italian teacher at (to be named below), conducted classical research on the development of the chick in the fertilized egg before him, and a Baltic-Prussian scientist, Karl Ernst von Baer (1792– 1876), was the first to find the mammalian egg in the ovary well after him in 1827. Baer and this date are elsewhere cited for the true “founding of scientific embryology.”q Harvey, of course, fully described the entire course of the blood in a magnificent monograph, but it has been pointed out that he deftly deflected praise away from the third of Osler’s “claimants,” [Andreas Cæsalpinus] of (1519–1603) by instead citing an unclear statement by at a key expository point. Cesalpino, one of Colombo’s former students at the University of , was the first to describe the general circulation and to introduce the word “circulatio” in his Quæstionum Peripateticarum (1571).r Like his former Reifler. Milestones in OPRS: Discovery of LPS & Subsequent History Supplemental Digital Content (SDC 6) teacher, Cesalpino presented his many experimental physiologic observations on the subject in Quæstionum Medicarum (1593).

References / SDC 6 a Coppola ED. The discovery of the pulmonary circulation: a new approach. Bull Hist Med 1957;31(1):44–77. b Meyerhof M. Ibn an-Nafis (XIIIth cent.) and his theory of the lesser circulation. Isis 1935;8: 731–4. c Goldstone L, Goldstone N. Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World. New York: Broadway Books, 2002; 198–9, 219–83. d Osler, W. Bibliotheca Osleriana: A Catalogue of Books Illustrating the and Science. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1987; 84. http://public- content.library.mcgill.ca/digitization/bibliotheca_osleriana.pdf. Accessed July 12, 2020. e Willis R. Servetus and Calvin. A Study of an Important Epoch in the Early History of the Reformation. London: Henry S. King, 1877; 540. https://archive.org/details/servetuscalvinst00willrich. Accessed June 25, 2020. f Osler W. op. cit. 1987; 84–91. [See d, above.] g Osler W. Chauvinism in medicine. In: Aequanimitas with other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1932; 265–89. h Banister J. The Historie of Man, Sucked from the Sappe. London: John Daye, 1578. i Persaud TVN, Loukas M, Tubbs RS. A History of Human Anatomy. 2nd ed. Charles C. Thomas, 2014; 118, 190–1. j Eknoyan G, De Santo NG. op. cit. 1997; 265–6. k Colombo R. De re anatomica libri xv. Paris, Andreas Wechel, 1572; 419–20. l Pettegree A, Walsby M. French Books III & IV. Books published in France before 1601 in Latin and Languages other than French. Vol. 1, A – G. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2012; 483. m Harvey W. Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Franklin KJ, trans. Charles C. Thomas, 1957; 11, 16, 57. n Harvey W. op. cit. 1957; v. Reifler. Milestones in OPRS: Discovery of LPS & Subsequent History Supplemental Digital Content (SDC 6)

o Franklin KJ. William Harvey, Englishman. London: MacGibbon and Key, 1961. p Duke-Elder S and Cook C. Normal and abnormal development. Pt. 1. Embryology. In: Duke- Elder S ed. System of Ophthalmology. Vol. 3. St. Louis: CV Mosby Co., 1963; 8–9. q Von Baer KE. On the genesis of the ovum of mammals and of man. O’Malley CD, trans., Bernard Cohen, introd. Isis 1956;47(2);117–53. r Arcieri JP. The Circulation of the Blood and Andrea Cesalpino of Arezzo. New York: Vanni, 1945; 24–60, 76, 109, & 134–5.