Bill Schutt, zoologist, research fellow at the American Museum of Natural History, and professor emeritus of biology at Long Island University (LIU Post Campus), tells the natural history of the heart in humans and other animals—a fascinating story of evolution and scientific progress. The book consists of three parts and begins with an overview of the animal kingdom, helping to understand the anatomy of the heart, its functions and evolution. Schutt reveals the secrets of the hearts of insects, horses, worms, giraffes, snakes and lizards; A string of hearts passes before our eyes - big, small, cold and even non-existent. A variety of topics are covered - from the circulation of microorganisms to the work of the giant hearts of blue whales, from the peculiarities of the blood circulation of horseshoe crabs to the uniqueness of the fluid flowing through the veins of Antarctic icefish. In the second part of the book, Schutt traces the development of medical knowledge about the heart and circulatory system. Particular attention is paid to the medical pioneers who established many of our modern understandings of the heart and circulation (but also codified the often curious errors that had wandered from one medical book to another for centuries), such as Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey. The final part is devoted to the achievements of modern cardiology. It talks about broken heart syndrome, heart transplants, regeneration of the heart, which can grow in the laboratory from a single cell, and also describes the technologies that are now used to study the heart. The author's witty observations are complemented by informative illustrations by talented contemporary artist Patricia J. Winn.