The human venous and arterial systems. Engraving, after engravings by M. Vandergucht after W. Cowper of 1702 and 1707.

1 print : engraving ; image 11.5 x 18.2 cm

Venous system, arterial system.

Richard K. Aspin, "John Evelyn's tables of veins and arteries: a rediscovered letter," Medical History, 39, no. 4, October 1995, pp. 493-499

Wellcome Collection 37385i

The Evelyn venous and arterial tables were engraved by Michael Vandergucht after drawings by the anatomist William Cowper and used to illustrate Cowper's article in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 280, July and August 1702, pp. 1177-1201, entitled: "An account of divers schemes of arteries and veins, dissected from adult human bodies, and given to the repository of the Royal Society by John Evelyn, Esq; F.R.S. To which are subjoyn'd a description of the extremities of those vessels, and the manner the blood is seen, by the microscope, to pass from the arteries to the veins in quadrupeds when living: with some chyryrgical observations and figures after the life, by William Cowper, F.R.S." On p. 1179 Cowper comments that, "These figures are closely drawn after the original schemes, and I am apt to flatter my self they will be acceptable to the inquisitive."

The figure on the right, labelled "Arterial system", is after a plate designed by William Cowper and engraved by Michael Vandergucht and published in James Drake's Anthropologia nova, London 1707, ii, fig. 20. Cowper's illustrations of the venous and arterial systems both appeared as illustrations to Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie (plate volume 18, Paris 1762, nos 8-9) and were subsequently frequently illustrated in English encyclopedias