The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, Considered Anatomically, Physically, and Philosophically

By Emanuel Swedenborg, late Member of the House of Nobles in the Royal Diet of Sweden; Assessor of the Royal Metallic College of Sweden; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Upsala, and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm; Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg.

Translated from the Latin by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M.A.

Paucis natus est. Qui populum aetatis sucae: multa annorum millia, multa populorum supervenient: ad illa respice, etiamsi omnibus tecum viventibus silentium ... [aliqua causa] indixerit: venient, qui sine offensa, sine gratia judicent. (SENECA, Epist. 79.)

Contents of First Volume (Part I.)

Introduction 1

Chapter I. The Composition and Genuine Essence of the Blood. 29

Chapter II. The Arteries and Veins, their Tunics, and the Circulation of the Blood. 116

Chapter III. On the Formation of the Chick in the Egg, and on the Arteries, Veins, and Rudiments of the Heart. 241

Chapter IV. On the Circulation of the Blood in the Foetus; and on the Foramen Ovale and Ductus Arteriosus belonging to the Heart in Embryos and Infants. 316

Chapter V. The Heart of the Turtle. 372

Chapter VI. The peculiar Arteries and Veins of the Heart, and the Coronary Vessels. 387

Chapter VII. The Motion of the Adult Heart. 460

Contents Of Volume Two (Part II.)

Chapter I. On the Motion of the Brain; showing that its Animation is coincident with the Respiration of the Lungs. 653

Chapter II. The Cortical Substance of the Brain specifically. 721

Chapter III. The Human Soul. 860

Index of Authors, List of Unverified Citations, Bibliographical Notices of Authors 1020

Appendix

315. These are all the inferences which I design to draw from the narrative presented to us upon the subject of the vesicles, so far as it relates to my present subject. The facts which are evident are indeed comparatively scanty. It is only a few drops that we are able to snatch from the fathomless ocean, and from these, obscure as they are, is all our wisdom derived. Still, whoever wishes to admire the Creator in his work and in the universe of nature, has only to enter into the animal kingdom, as also into himself, and there to contemplate the causes of things with a desire to trace them from their primary source, and fresh wonders of wonders will every moment be bursting upon his view, even though his life should last a hundred times longer than Nestor's, and he should occupy the whole of it in investigating the mysteries of nature.