Word: aorta
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...heart was in the main artery of his left leg. It had traveled there, surmised surgeons, by piercing the heart and entering the left auricle. Contraction of the heart pushed the small lead pellet into the left ventricle, whence further pulsation drove it into the aorta, main feeder of the arterial system...
There is where the boy, having survived the puncture of his heart, ran his second greatest risk. One branch of the aorta goes to the head and brain. The other branch goes to the trunk and limbs. Had the bullet been carried by the flowing blood and pulsing artery up toward the brain, it would quickly have plugged some small bore artery, caused quick death. Instead, the pellet turned downward, worked into the left iliac artery, then the left femoral. Surgeons last week left it there, hoping it would work further down the leg where its removal would be less...
...many causes-riotous living, too strenuous athletics, brain fatigue, disease, any undue strain on the human corporation. To repair damage to worn or fatigued tissues the heart works harder to pump cleansing, healing blood. Normally the arteries-flexible, elastic, contractile tubes springing directly from the heart as the great aorta and ending far away as tiny arterioles-expand as the blood enters them, then contract progressively to push the blood onward to the ends of the body-to the brain, the vitals, the tissues of the heart itself, the limbs, the skin. From the terminal arterioles tiny capillaries suck this...
...untimely end by over-eating. I learned that his name was Simpel, and that he had been a member of the Freshman class here. The chief interest in this case centred around the heart, which the surgeons took especial care to dissect. On cutting away the pericardium, the aorta was found to wear a greenish hue, attributable, I was told, to the tender age of the subject. One lobe was slightly toughened, and I noticed that this hardness was gradually spreading over the whole organ. This symptom, the doctors said, always appears after doses of beer at Carl...