The Description of the Human Body He believed the heat of the heart somehow caused all movement of the body. Blood vessels he realized were pipes, he saw that veins carried digested food to the heart. (This was brought further by William Harvey. Harvey developed the idea of the circulation of the blood.) Descartes felt that an energetic part of blood went to the brain and there gave the brain a special type of air imbued with vital force that enabled the brain to experience, think and imagine. This special air then went through the nerves to the muscles enabling them to move. The Description of
Jacobite line of succession to the English and Scottish thrones in 1714 succession crisis which ultimately led to an Act of Parliament to designate Anne's successor. The Act of Settlement, drawn up in 1701, settled the succession on Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, barring any Roman Catholics or spouses of Roman Catholics from the succession. This was a deliberate attempt to disinherit Anne's nearest blood relation, the exiled Roman Catholic James Stuart (who would later be known as the 'Old Pretender'), her half-brother, from inheriting the throne. The Act changed the course of British history and had many political consequences, primarily leading to the