^HomeMisconceptions about the heart

Some  (used to) believe

1. That the heart has this shape.      It is more oval

2. That  it is all the way on the left side

   

3. Aristotle's claim that the heart is the origin of the nerves, Galen was not afraid to contradict him. 

4. Galen, a Greek physician who lived in the second century AD.,  believed  that there were two distinct types of blood.  1) 'Nutritive blood' was thought to be made by the liver and carried through veins to the organs, where it was consumed. 2) 'Vital blood' was thought to be made by the heart and pumped through arteries to carry the "vital spirits".

5.  Galen did not know that the blood left each ventricle through arteries.

6. Galen (the father of anatomy- not the biological father) believed  that it has only two chambers. (not four, Galen's mistake) A fish's heart is a two-chambered organ. Frogs have a three-chambered heart. Humans and all other mammals, as well as birds, have a four-chambered heart  

7. That the left side is full of blood and the right side full of air.

8. The ancient Greeks believed the heart was the seat of intelligence.

9. That it sits below the mid humerus bone.

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