Cardiovascular system in our body Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cardiovascular system in our body - Essay Example Therefore, the system formed by the heart and vessels in our body is called the cardiovascular system. The system is also referred to as the circulatory system. For several years, people have been enthralled by the cardiovascular system. This is probably because; during those times people mostly believed that life was associated with the beating of the heart. The people of the earlier periods only used to have a hazy and common notion, about the cardiovascular system. However, as time progressed and people witnessed advancement in technology, the real purpose of this significant system and its components was attained. Currently, we are knowledgeable to understand that the cardiovascular system is integral, in carrying oxygen and nourishment the human body cells. The heart and blood, as well as blood vessels, are the chief apparatus of this vital system. Although the cardiovascular system was covered immensely, and written about, it was hardly understood. The circulatory system parts were discovered, identified and recorded earlier, before they were even understood how they functioned. For instance, the early Greek physicians associated the arteries with air delivering throughout the body, and to them nothing else contributed to this function. Incredibly, this notion was believed until twelve centuries later, when the veins and arteries were associated with their main function of transporting the significant body fluid referred to as blood. Furthermore, even as late as the 4th century BC, a period during which a physician of the hippocratean order, discovered the heart valves, the true comprehending of their chief function would evade the physicians for another thirteen hundred years, before it was established (Cobb, P. 1). The clear variation between the arteries and veins was discovered by Herophilus, who was a Greek physician, between 335-280 BC. He made most of his discoveries, by conducting scientific dissection of a human corpse, or through a systematic vivisection of living humans. After his death, dissection was rendered illegal, and it took over eighteen hundred more years before the studies were later resumed. Erasistratus, who was Herophilus’ apprentice, discovered that, when a cut was made on the arteries of a living patient, blood would spill. Claudius Galanus in (AD 129 200/217), which was five hundred years following the death of Herophilus, made a clear and distinct variation between the venous and the arterial system. He discovered that the venous system was responsible for transporting blood rich in nutrition, whereas the arterial system was concerned with transporting of the body heat. Further studies by William Harvey, who had previously described the veins’ valves wit hout indicating their function, led him to declare that the human circulatory system was his discovery, in 1628. The capillary system, which links the veins and arteries, was identified by Marcello Malpighi, an Italian doctor, thirty years after Harvey’s claim. Although, by this period, the circulatory system had eventually been mapped, proper comprehension of the functions of the process, were not accomplished, until the 20th century. Even later years such as earlier 1900s, physicians were still dynamically explaining leeches and bloodletting. However, even in the modern era, studies are still ongoing to understand the cardiovascular system (Cobb, P. 1). The heart is a crucial organ that enhances the well being of people; thus entailing that it should be maintained in