Cirulatory

Project: The circulatory system
Part 1: Discovery of how the circulatory system works
People have tried to explain how the circulatory system works for more than two thousand years.
One of the main books of Chinese medicine, written 2600 years ago, stated that 'all of the blood in
the body is pumped by the heart, completes a circle and never stops moving'.
Galen was a surgeon and doctor who lived in what is now modern-day Turkey about 1900 years ago.
At that time, scientists already knew that there were two types of blood vessels in the body arteries
and veins. Galen thought that the liver produced blood, which was then carried to the rest of the
body in the veins. The body then used up the blood for energy as it flowed to the different organs.
Galen also stated that the arteries contained blood, not air, which was what earlier scientists had
thought. He understood that blood went from one side of the heart to the other side of the heart,
but he didn't know how that happened. He thought there were tiny holes in a wall between two
sides of the heart.
Ibn al-Nafis was an Arab physician from Syria who lived 800 years ago. In about the year 1240 he
discovered that blood moves from the right side of the heart to the lungs and back to the left side of
the heart. He was the first person to challenge Galen's idea that blood could pass directly from the
right side of the heart to the left side of the heart.
William Harvey was an English doctor who lived 400 years ago. At that time doctors and scientists
thought that the lungs moved the blood around the body. They also thought the heart's function was
to control our feelings. Harvey observed water pumps in London which gave him the idea that the
heart pumped blood around the body. He studied the heart and blood vessels and carried out
experiments. He was very thorough in his work and spent many hours repeating experiments and
going over every detail. He also read the work of early doctors to help him build up his own ideas.
Harvey's restits owed him that the heart works by muscle contraction to pump blood to body organs
and that blood is carried away from heart by arteries and ret is to heart through veins. He observed
that in one hour the heart pums more than the body's weight in blood. This showed him that the
body did not use up the blood that flowed to body organs. In 1628 Harvey explained how blood
flows in one direction throughout the body and that gases enter and leave the blood in the lungs.
Just over 30 years later, in 1661, an Italian scientist called Marcello Malpighi used a microscope to
observe capillaries for the first time. He suggested that capillaries connected the arteries and veins
which allowed the blood to flow back through the body in a continuous pathway. We now know that
he was correct.
Questions
1 a What incorrect ideas did doctors and scientists have about circulation up to 400 years ago?
b What correct ideas did doctors and scientists have about circulation before William Harvey's
discoveries?
2 Compare the ideas from the ancient Chinese medical book with Malpighi's findings two thousand
years later. How are they the same? How are they different?
3 What observation made William Harvey start to think about how the heart works?
4 a How did Harvey obtain evidence about how the circulatory system works?
b Why did he repeat his experiments?
50 How did Harvey show that the body does not use up the blood that flows to the organs?
b Name three other discoveries that William Harvey made about the circulatory system.
Part 2 Draw a timeline of discoveries about the circulatory system
1 Draw a timeline to show the discoveries made by different people about the circulatory system.
You should include the date and a description of the discovery or event. Think of ways to decorate
your timeline to make it look attractive and interesting.
2 Find out who was the first person to do each of the following and when:
 . transplanted the first human heart
 . discovered that humans can have different blood types
 invented the first stethoscope to listen to the heart beating
 discovered that a substance in the blood called haemoglobin carries oxygen. .
Add this information to your timeline.

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Cirulatory

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Project: The circulatory system

Part 1: Discovery of how the circulatory system works

Part 2 Draw a timeline of discoveries about the circulatory system

 . transplanted the first human heart

 . discovered that humans can have different blood types

 invented the first stethoscope to listen to the heart beating

 discovered that a substance in the blood called haemoglobin carries oxygen. .

Add this information to your timeline.

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