The chains of mountains which crown both hemispheres, and more than six hundred rivers which flow from the foot of these rocks towards the sea; the various streams that swell these rivers in their courses, after fertilizing the fields through which they pass; the innumerable fountains which spring from the same source, which supply necessary refreshment, and growth, and beauty to animal and vegetable life; all this appears no more to result from a fortuitous concourse and an obliquity of atoms, than the retina which receives the rays of light, or the crystalline humor which refracts it, or the drum of the ear which admits sound, or the circulation of the blood in our veins, the systole and diastole of the heart, the regulating principle of the machine of life.
"A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 5 (of 10) From "The Works of Voltaire - A Contemporary Version""
François-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire) Commentator: John Morley Tobias Smollett H.G. Leigh
It was the systole and diastole of the Base.
"Leaves from a Field Note-Book"
J. H. Morgan
He considers the heart to be in ceaseless motion, alternately dilating and contracting, but the diastole is in his opinion the influential act of the organ.
"Fathers of Biology"
Charles McRae