Definition of "auricles" []

• Plural form of auricle. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "They did not count the rest of the heart -- what we now speak of as the 'auricles' -- as any part of the heart at all; but when they spoke of the heart they meant the left and the right ventricles; and they described those great vessels, which we now call the 'pulmonary veins' and the 'vena cava', as opening directly into the heart itself."
• "It then perceives beforehand none of those things which occur in the body, but has received its name vaguely and without any proper reason, like the parts about the heart, which are called auricles, but which contribute nothing towards hearing."
• "And, because the blood which thus enters into the heart passes through these two pouches called auricles, it thence happens that their motion is the contrary of that of the heart, and that when it expands they contract."