The Fiery Pump. The Natural History of the Heart

Bill Schutt, a zoologist, research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and emeritus professor of biology at Long Island University (LIU Post campus), tells the natural history of the human heart and the hearts of other animals —... an exciting story of evolution and scientific progress. The book is divided into three parts and begins with an overview of the animal kingdom to help understand the anatomy of the heart, its functions, and evolution. Schutt reveals the secrets of the hearts of insects, horses, worms, giraffes, snakes, and lizards; a procession of hearts unfolds before our eyes — large, small, cold, and even nonexistent. A multitude of topics is covered — from circulation in microorganisms to the workings of the gigantic hearts of blue whales, from the peculiarities of circulation in horseshoe crabs to the uniqueness of the fluid flowing through the veins of Antarctic icefish. In the second part of the book, Schutt traces the development of medical knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system. Particular attention is given to the pioneers of medicine who established many of the current understandings of the heart and circulation (but also codified errors, often amusing, that have wandered from one medical book to another over the centuries), such as Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Andreas Vesalius, and William Harvey. The final part is dedicated to the achievements of modern cardiology. Here, the book discusses broken heart syndrome, heart transplants, heart regeneration that can grow in the lab from a single cell, as well as technologies currently used to study the heart. The author's witty observations perfectly complement the informative illustrations created by the talented contemporary artist Patricia J. Wynn.