L2 - Representing the heart

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Representing the heart

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How do these link with the heart?

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William Harvey. Mezzotint. Wellcome Collection.

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• The first known use of a heart shape to symbolise love was in a French text from the 13th century.

• It became a popular symbol of love in Europe in the 16th century.

• It is not an accurate representation of a real heart's shape.

• The Egyptians would remove a dead person's organs as part of the mummification process, storing them in canopic jars.

• However, the heart was left inside the body as the Egyptians believed it was responsible for thinking.

• A vampire is a mythical creature that feeds off the blood of the living.

• It is said to be killed by putting a stake through the heart.

• This is a pump that pushes air into objects such as bicycle wheels.

• Our heart is a pump, except it pushes blood throughout the body.

• Think how tiring it is to use a pump and how much energy goes into our continuously beating heart!

• A stethoscope is a piece of equipment used by medical staff to listen to the inside of the body, including the heart beating.

• Early stethoscopes from the start of the 19th century were simple, wooden tubes that amplified the sounds into one ear

• Many songs refer to the heart, often with themes of love and relationships.

• Can you think of a song lyric about the heart?

• In the 4th century, the Greek philosopher Aristotle identified the heart as the most important part of the body.

• He said it was the 'seat of intelligence, motion and sensation' and 'a hot, dry organ', believing it to be part of our emotions and thinking.

William Harvey. Mezzotint. Wellcome Collection.

• William Harvey was an English doctor in the early 17th century.

• His greatest achievement was recognising that blood flows around the human body using a system of arteries and veins, evidenced by experiments.