Heart and blood vessels. Historical illustration of a dissection, revealing the heart and its blood vessels. The heart's right ventricle (blue, lower centre) pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs. The left ventricle (red, right of right ventricle) pumps oxygenated blood from the lungs into the aorta (red vessel above heart) and so around the body. Branches of this large artery (from left: the innominate, left carotid and left subclavian arteries) supply blood to the upper body. The deoxygenated blood returns to the heart via the superior vena cava (blue, left of aorta). Colour lithograph by Fairland from The Vessels of the Human Body, 1837. Based on drawings by Swandale.