Biography Category
Name :
William Harvey
Date :
Views :
782
Category :
Birth Date :
01/01/1970
Birth Place :
Not Available
Death Date :
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[b]Birth and Early Years[/b][br /]
[br /]
William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578 in Kent, England, into the prosperous Harvey family. His father, Thomas Harvey had a flourishing business. He was well known in the small town of Folkestone. William was the eldest among seven children. He was the one born with a silver spoon during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. All his brothers did roaring business at the royal court in London and led a luxurious life.[br /]
[br /]
William started his education at King’s School, Canterbury. He was an avid reader and an ardent lover of books. He took his bachelor’s degree in 1597 from the Cambridge University. He proceeded to study medicine in one of the renowned centres for medical research at Padua, Italy. There he studied under the esteemed guidance of Hieronymus Fabricius, an anatomist, whose influence could be felt a great deal in William Harvey’s works.[br /]
[br /]
William returned in 1602 and married Elizabeth Browne, the daughter of one of the Queen’s physicians. He enjoyed the best seats at the Globe theatre and was often a guest at Royal Palace.[br /]
[br /]
[b]His Experiments[/b][br /]
[br /]
Harvey was keen on finding answers about the throbbing of the heart and its relation to the circulation of blood. Previous scientists had reached to some conclusion, but he could not accept all of them. He was inspired by the scientist Fabricius, in Padua to use comparative anatomy and Harvey was totally captivated by this idea. In order to quench his thirst for knowledge, the regal emperor also encouraged him to study the intricate details of blood circulation. He ceaselessly dissected all kinds of animals from insects, earthworms, reptiles, birds and mammals. This gave him an opportunity to widen his knowledge on pathology.[br /]
[br /]
In 1628, Harvey published his theories in form of On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. This book did not make him famous, on the other hand he became rather notorious throughout Europe as his discoveries opposed the established theories. “I was believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained, and all the physicians were against me.” Fear of this infamy made him hold back his valuable discoveries for a long time. On the other hand, his fame as an experimenting physician had to pay its price : his medical practice declined.[br /]
[br /]
William Harvey’s active research on the reproduction of animals were published in form of Anatomical Exercitationes Concerning the Generation of Animals, after much persuasion from his friend Sir George Ent.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was a stern follower of mechanical philosophy and his urge for precision in details made him use quantitative methods to achieve results. He was the first one to apply these methods to his research. William Harvey’s incessant urge for truth made him dissect animals till he could solve his doubts. Harvey toiled a lot to make his findings a success. He always re-tested it before putting forward any experiment. He took care that superstition and age-old theories did not obliterate his findings. His spirits were not dampened by the ever fault finding critics.[br /]
[br /]
As the time passed and others stared accepting his findings, William Harvey came to be known as the leading anatomist of his days. His experiments and discoveries are discussed at length in ‘Works’.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Dr William Harvey[/b][br /]
[br /]
In Padua, Harvey had education based on the theories of Claudis Galen. In 1604, Harvey joined the College of Physicians to become a practicing doctor. In 1609, he joined St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He served as an assistant physician for 34 years at that 200 beds and 12-ward hospital. Harvey’s work was to see the patients and prescribe them treatment. This period of his life found him a busy physician and scientific discoverer. At the same time he had a large private practice to his credit. He had an influential clientele, which including Sir Francis Bacon, and the like.[br /]
[br /]
In 1615, he accepted the position of the Lumleian Lecturer in surgery in the same hospital. This posting was the stepping stone to a series of lectures and public dissections, which made him discover the true nature of the circulation of blood.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey held his lectureship until 1656. When, in 1654, he was offered the post of the college president he declined due to old age.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Royal Connection[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1618, he was appointed the physician in the court of King James I. His position made him carry out his experiments without any impediment or financial crisis. Harvey was his trusted physician. During the king’s last illness in 1625, Harvey supervised his treatment with a team of doctors. After the king’s death, the Duke of Buckingham was blamed of poisoning the king. Harvey played a key role in acquitting the Duke. He remained in the good books of the successor King Charles I. Harvey became his close friend and always accompanied him on his journeys as his personal physician.[br /]
[br /]
The king knew about his interest in the study of blood circulation. His research into the blood circulation system was generously sponsored and encouraged by King Charles I.[br /]
[br /]
At the same time he took great interest in the affairs at the College of Physicians. His colleagues always turned to him for advice. He was present at all official meetings and occupied many honorable positions other than the president. During Harvey’s tenure the physicians wielded more power than the surgeons, obstetricians and apothecaries. Harvey took care to see that others did not become suppressed under the authority of the college. Later, he had to divide his time between both of his activities. He was so much burdened with his work at the king’s court, that he could not do full justice to the work at the college. [br /]
[br /]
[b]The Civil War[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1636, King Charles I dispatched a diplomatic embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Harvey accompanied their mission and traveled by land and water, through war ravaged territories. During his journey, he visited Vienna, Prague, Venice, Rome and Naples. At Nuremberg, he had a memorable meeting with Caspar Hofmann, Professor of medicine at the University of Altdorf. Harvey tried to convince him of his findings about the circulation of blood, but was met with stiff resistance. This did not deter William Harvey; he kept his cool in the face of obstinate blindness to the facts.[br /]
[br /]
The Civil War broke out in 1642. Harvey was with the king and two princes were under his tutelage, during the early stages of the Battle of Edgehill. When the king set up his headquarters at Oxford, Harvey was made the warden of Merton College in 1645. Here he resumed his research work. He also met John Aubrey, an antiquary who later wrote about Harvey in his Brief Lives. The king was defeated and he surrendered to the Scots. Harvey accompanied him to Newcastle, but was forced to leave and was forbidden to meet the king when he was imprisoned in the Isle of Wight. Though Harvey was never interested in politics, he held the king in high esteem. The king was executed in 1649.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey valued the views of his predecessor in experimental physiology Galen and inferred a lot of help from his writings. Unfortunately, most of his scientific papers were destroyed by Parliamentary Marshals during the Civil War. There is no evidence of his methods except a few of his lecture notes. Harvey’s manuscripts could be seen in the British Museum but they are in a very bad shape, written in mixed Latin and English.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Dusk[/b][br /]
[br /]
The last years of this great scientist and physician were quite eventful. Under Cromwell’s Protectorate, he was considered a political ‘delinquent’, due to his long association with King Charles I. He was even forced to live outside London with his brothers.[br /]
[br /]
He still treated a few patients and participated in the affairs of the college. In 1652, in order to leave behind a remarkable service to his colleagues, Harvey dedicated to the institution a new college building with a library containing his own collection of books and manuscripts. Later, his writings were referred by the students for 14 years before it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Only a few books could be salvaged, which bear testimony even to this day.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey suffered from severe pain from gout and kidney stones. He described himself as “not only ripe in years, but also a little weary and entitled to an honorable discharge.” In his later years, he suffered from cerebral thrombosis, which left him paralyzed and unable to speak. He died at the age of 80 in his brother Eliab Harvey’s house in Roehampton. He was buried in the family vault at Hampstead, an Essex village. In 1883, he was re-buried in a marble sarcophagus in the Harvey Chapel. A marble bust was placed by Edward Marshall near the tomb.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578 in Kent, England, into the prosperous Harvey family. His father, Thomas Harvey had a flourishing business. He was well known in the small town of Folkestone. William was the eldest among seven children. He was the one born with a silver spoon during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. All his brothers did roaring business at the royal court in London and led a luxurious life.[br /]
[br /]
William started his education at King’s School, Canterbury. He was an avid reader and an ardent lover of books. He took his bachelor’s degree in 1597 from the Cambridge University. He proceeded to study medicine in one of the renowned centres for medical research at Padua, Italy. There he studied under the esteemed guidance of Hieronymus Fabricius, an anatomist, whose influence could be felt a great deal in William Harvey’s works.[br /]
[br /]
William returned in 1602 and married Elizabeth Browne, the daughter of one of the Queen’s physicians. He enjoyed the best seats at the Globe theatre and was often a guest at Royal Palace.[br /]
[br /]
[b]His Experiments[/b][br /]
[br /]
Harvey was keen on finding answers about the throbbing of the heart and its relation to the circulation of blood. Previous scientists had reached to some conclusion, but he could not accept all of them. He was inspired by the scientist Fabricius, in Padua to use comparative anatomy and Harvey was totally captivated by this idea. In order to quench his thirst for knowledge, the regal emperor also encouraged him to study the intricate details of blood circulation. He ceaselessly dissected all kinds of animals from insects, earthworms, reptiles, birds and mammals. This gave him an opportunity to widen his knowledge on pathology.[br /]
[br /]
In 1628, Harvey published his theories in form of On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. This book did not make him famous, on the other hand he became rather notorious throughout Europe as his discoveries opposed the established theories. “I was believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained, and all the physicians were against me.” Fear of this infamy made him hold back his valuable discoveries for a long time. On the other hand, his fame as an experimenting physician had to pay its price : his medical practice declined.[br /]
[br /]
William Harvey’s active research on the reproduction of animals were published in form of Anatomical Exercitationes Concerning the Generation of Animals, after much persuasion from his friend Sir George Ent.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was a stern follower of mechanical philosophy and his urge for precision in details made him use quantitative methods to achieve results. He was the first one to apply these methods to his research. William Harvey’s incessant urge for truth made him dissect animals till he could solve his doubts. Harvey toiled a lot to make his findings a success. He always re-tested it before putting forward any experiment. He took care that superstition and age-old theories did not obliterate his findings. His spirits were not dampened by the ever fault finding critics.[br /]
[br /]
As the time passed and others stared accepting his findings, William Harvey came to be known as the leading anatomist of his days. His experiments and discoveries are discussed at length in ‘Works’.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Dr William Harvey[/b][br /]
[br /]
In Padua, Harvey had education based on the theories of Claudis Galen. In 1604, Harvey joined the College of Physicians to become a practicing doctor. In 1609, he joined St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He served as an assistant physician for 34 years at that 200 beds and 12-ward hospital. Harvey’s work was to see the patients and prescribe them treatment. This period of his life found him a busy physician and scientific discoverer. At the same time he had a large private practice to his credit. He had an influential clientele, which including Sir Francis Bacon, and the like.[br /]
[br /]
In 1615, he accepted the position of the Lumleian Lecturer in surgery in the same hospital. This posting was the stepping stone to a series of lectures and public dissections, which made him discover the true nature of the circulation of blood.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey held his lectureship until 1656. When, in 1654, he was offered the post of the college president he declined due to old age.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Royal Connection[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1618, he was appointed the physician in the court of King James I. His position made him carry out his experiments without any impediment or financial crisis. Harvey was his trusted physician. During the king’s last illness in 1625, Harvey supervised his treatment with a team of doctors. After the king’s death, the Duke of Buckingham was blamed of poisoning the king. Harvey played a key role in acquitting the Duke. He remained in the good books of the successor King Charles I. Harvey became his close friend and always accompanied him on his journeys as his personal physician.[br /]
[br /]
The king knew about his interest in the study of blood circulation. His research into the blood circulation system was generously sponsored and encouraged by King Charles I.[br /]
[br /]
At the same time he took great interest in the affairs at the College of Physicians. His colleagues always turned to him for advice. He was present at all official meetings and occupied many honorable positions other than the president. During Harvey’s tenure the physicians wielded more power than the surgeons, obstetricians and apothecaries. Harvey took care to see that others did not become suppressed under the authority of the college. Later, he had to divide his time between both of his activities. He was so much burdened with his work at the king’s court, that he could not do full justice to the work at the college. [br /]
[br /]
[b]The Civil War[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1636, King Charles I dispatched a diplomatic embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Harvey accompanied their mission and traveled by land and water, through war ravaged territories. During his journey, he visited Vienna, Prague, Venice, Rome and Naples. At Nuremberg, he had a memorable meeting with Caspar Hofmann, Professor of medicine at the University of Altdorf. Harvey tried to convince him of his findings about the circulation of blood, but was met with stiff resistance. This did not deter William Harvey; he kept his cool in the face of obstinate blindness to the facts.[br /]
[br /]
The Civil War broke out in 1642. Harvey was with the king and two princes were under his tutelage, during the early stages of the Battle of Edgehill. When the king set up his headquarters at Oxford, Harvey was made the warden of Merton College in 1645. Here he resumed his research work. He also met John Aubrey, an antiquary who later wrote about Harvey in his Brief Lives. The king was defeated and he surrendered to the Scots. Harvey accompanied him to Newcastle, but was forced to leave and was forbidden to meet the king when he was imprisoned in the Isle of Wight. Though Harvey was never interested in politics, he held the king in high esteem. The king was executed in 1649.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey valued the views of his predecessor in experimental physiology Galen and inferred a lot of help from his writings. Unfortunately, most of his scientific papers were destroyed by Parliamentary Marshals during the Civil War. There is no evidence of his methods except a few of his lecture notes. Harvey’s manuscripts could be seen in the British Museum but they are in a very bad shape, written in mixed Latin and English.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Dusk[/b][br /]
[br /]
The last years of this great scientist and physician were quite eventful. Under Cromwell’s Protectorate, he was considered a political ‘delinquent’, due to his long association with King Charles I. He was even forced to live outside London with his brothers.[br /]
[br /]
He still treated a few patients and participated in the affairs of the college. In 1652, in order to leave behind a remarkable service to his colleagues, Harvey dedicated to the institution a new college building with a library containing his own collection of books and manuscripts. Later, his writings were referred by the students for 14 years before it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Only a few books could be salvaged, which bear testimony even to this day.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey suffered from severe pain from gout and kidney stones. He described himself as “not only ripe in years, but also a little weary and entitled to an honorable discharge.” In his later years, he suffered from cerebral thrombosis, which left him paralyzed and unable to speak. He died at the age of 80 in his brother Eliab Harvey’s house in Roehampton. He was buried in the family vault at Hampstead, an Essex village. In 1883, he was re-buried in a marble sarcophagus in the Harvey Chapel. A marble bust was placed by Edward Marshall near the tomb.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
In the late 16th century, when the world was getting away from the medieval thoughts and practices, William Harvey persuaded the study of human anatomy and achieved a milestone in the field of science. Equipped with meager means and inadequate facilities, but guided by his instinct and dedication for the research, Harvey discovered the blood circulation in human body and foetal blood circulation.[br /]
[br /]
A physician by profession, William Harvey was not satisfied with prescribing medicines to his patients. His inquisitive mind always wanted to find out the root cause of the problem and eliminate it. Wherever he came across a doubt in the established findings, he went about to search the answers and to tie up the loose ends. He proved Claudis Galen’s (a Greco-Roman physician and his predecessor in the field) theory of blood circulation wrong by supplying more convincing data. By applying quantitative methods in his experiments for the first time, William Harvey made his findings fault free.[br /]
[br /]
Everything about the human body intrigued him. His discoveries, put down in many of his books, helped a lot in understanding the workings of the human body. He stands as a lighthouse in the study of medicine, leading the way for many to come.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
A physician by profession, William Harvey was not satisfied with prescribing medicines to his patients. His inquisitive mind always wanted to find out the root cause of the problem and eliminate it. Wherever he came across a doubt in the established findings, he went about to search the answers and to tie up the loose ends. He proved Claudis Galen’s (a Greco-Roman physician and his predecessor in the field) theory of blood circulation wrong by supplying more convincing data. By applying quantitative methods in his experiments for the first time, William Harvey made his findings fault free.[br /]
[br /]
Everything about the human body intrigued him. His discoveries, put down in many of his books, helped a lot in understanding the workings of the human body. He stands as a lighthouse in the study of medicine, leading the way for many to come.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]April 1, 1578[/b][br /]
Birth of William Harvey.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1588 – 1593[/b][br /]
King’s School at Canterbury.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1593[/b][br /]
Awarded Scholarship.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1597[/b][br /]
Acquired BA degree.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1600[/b][br /]
Studied Medicine at the University of Padua, Italy.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1602[/b][br /]
Graduated from the University of Padua and married Elizabeth Browne.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1604[/b][br /]
Went to London and joined the college of Physicians.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1609[/b][br /]
Became a member of the staff of St Bartholomew’s Hospital.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1615[/b][br /]
He became the Lumleian Lecturer in surgery.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1618[/b][br /]
Appointed the physician of King James I.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1625[/b][br /]
Led the team of physicians treating King James I.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1633 – 1638[/b][br /]
Accompanied the king on his tours.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1652[/b][br /]
Donated a new college building with a library.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1654[/b][br /]
Declined the post of president of the college of Physicians.[br /]
[br /]
[b]June 3, 1657[/b][br /]
Death of William Harvey[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Birth of William Harvey.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1588 – 1593[/b][br /]
King’s School at Canterbury.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1593[/b][br /]
Awarded Scholarship.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1597[/b][br /]
Acquired BA degree.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1600[/b][br /]
Studied Medicine at the University of Padua, Italy.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1602[/b][br /]
Graduated from the University of Padua and married Elizabeth Browne.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1604[/b][br /]
Went to London and joined the college of Physicians.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1609[/b][br /]
Became a member of the staff of St Bartholomew’s Hospital.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1615[/b][br /]
He became the Lumleian Lecturer in surgery.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1618[/b][br /]
Appointed the physician of King James I.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1625[/b][br /]
Led the team of physicians treating King James I.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1633 – 1638[/b][br /]
Accompanied the king on his tours.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1652[/b][br /]
Donated a new college building with a library.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1654[/b][br /]
Declined the post of president of the college of Physicians.[br /]
[br /]
[b]June 3, 1657[/b][br /]
Death of William Harvey[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
Before propounding his theories, William Harvey made it clear that his intention was not to deprive his predecessors of their honor; his sole intention was to use nature and to bring out the truth.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Heart[/b][br /]
[br /]
The working of the heart was a puzzle to most of the anatomists in the earlier centuries. As time passed a clear picture started to evolve. The earlier prevailing notion was that blood moved in the body because of arterial contractions. Harvey was able to discredit this fact by his tireless dissections. He succeeded to establish the relation between heart and blood circulation by dissecting the heart and blood circulation systems of animals. According to Harvey “I have used all my endeavor, bestowed all my pains on an attempt to produce something that should be agreeable to the good, profitable to the famed and useful to letters.”[br /]
[br /]
Until the 17th century, the works of scientists like Claudis Galen was used in medical schools. By then Andrews Vesalius, a scientist, had proved many of Galen’s ideas wrong. Harvey was an admirer of Galen. His first law of contention on Galen’s theory was about the beating of the heart. According to Galen the beating of pulse was the same as that of respiration. Harvey was able to prove that when the heart was erected it rose upwards to a point and at this juncture it beats against the chest and due to this the pulse is felt. Even a common man could surmise from the way Harvey put forward his theories. A person in anger, or exhausted by running, or having a warm bath could feel the pulse beat rapidly, whereas the respiration was less compared to the heartbeat. This made it clear that heartbeat and respiration did not complement each other, they had entirely different origins.[br /]
[br /]
The general ideas prevailed that the blood oozed through septum (the walls of the heart) from the right to the left ventricle. Harvey did away with this false conception. He made it clear that the septum of the heart was very thick compared to any part of the body. Nature has designed a more convenient passage: the pulmonary vein. The theory surrounding the septum sounded absurd as Harvey tried to prove that with aging the septum would become denser and would prevent the infiltration of blood. Harvey succeeded in laying bare these mysteries through his experiments.[br /]
[br /]
He portrayed a vivid picture of working of the heart. The heart works like a muscle, when it contracts the ventricles shrink and blood is expelled out, this makes the color of the heart become pale. When the heart rests the ventricle is filled with blood and the crimson color returns; all these actions take place at the same instant. The previous notion was that, the heart on its own had the power of drawing blood into the ventricles. Caspar Bauhin and John Roland, the famous anatomists, have observed that the heart has four motions, which take place in four distinct times. Harvey agrees with the four motions but not with the number of times. Harvey points out that the two auricles move at the same time and the two ventricles likewise, so the motion is performed in two times and not in four.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s observation about the heart is that all living creatures possess one, the warm-blooded creatures have red blood and the smaller creatures have pale blood. The heartbeats of the cold-blooded are very slow, in winter these animals do not show any pulsation, they ‘live after the manner of vegetables’. Another amazing thing that he noted was that a whole kingdom of 300 zoophytes exists which have no heart, and the whole body works as a heart.[br /]
[br /]
The heart is the source and fountain of all actions taking place in the human body. Man’s whole life depends on the food he eats; he can lead a normal life only if the digestion and distribution of energy is perfect. It is the only organ, which contains blood for general use; all other parts receive it to perform their particular functions. The heart is situated in such an advantageous position that it can distribute blood in due proportion, it can disburse specified quantity, according to the size of the artery.[br /]
[br /]
He studied the development of heart in chicks, within the first week of incubation a drop of blood appears and it palpitates, then the auricles develop and show constant signs of life. When the outline of the body begins to take shape the ventricles appear, but they are white and apparently bloodless with no signs of motion, so it is believed that the auricles and ventricles come to life before the heart and die after it. Harvey observed through his experiments that the heart ceases to pulsate sooner than the auricles and then the ventricle and finally all the other parts of the body come to a rest or death occurs. Aristotle, the great philosopher sums it up “Whence that in animals, which was last created, fails first and that which was first, fails last.[br /]
[br /]
By using greater diligence and investigation, and by frequent inspection and numerous collating observations, he was able to reveal the truth, he felt like ‘extricating himself from a labyrinth’. Harvey learnt that when the heart becomes tense, the blood is expelled, when it relaxes it receives the blood. Through his dissections, he proved that when the chest of a living animal is laid open the heart is seen alternatively moving and resting. When the right ventricle contracts, the pulmonary artery is filled with blood and distended by the blood forced into it, all the arteries are filled and they pulsate due to this. The pulses of the arteries are due to the forceful intake of the blood from the left ventricle.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was able to prove this beyond doubt when he treated a patient with a large pulsating tumor on the right side of the neck, which increased daily because of the blood received from the artery. The connection between the heart and the artery was obvious only after the postmortem of the patient. The pulse in the corresponding arm was small because a large portion of blood was diverted to the tumor. The conclusion was that whenever there is an impediment in the path of the artery the arteries beat with less force.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was the first to adopt scientific methods for the solution of biological problems; he was a forerunner of the method and even today a true scientist follows Harvey’s approach. A 19th century anatomist, William Osler praised Harvey for this mode of approach, which marked the break of the modern spirit with the old traditions. Careful observations and accurate description was not the end to experiments, Osler said, “But here for the first time a great physiological problem was approached from the experimental side by a man with a modern scientific mind, who could weigh evidence and not go beyond it, and who had the sense to let the conclusions emerge naturally but firmly from the observations.” [br /]
[br /]
[b]Blood Circulation[/b][br /]
[br /]
Once the study on the structure of the heart was perfected he ventured into the study of its function. He wanted to discover the truth by actual inspection and not from the theories of others. Harvey was familiar with the idea that contraction and expansion take place in the heart, but he was not able to say when and where it occurred due to the rapidity of the motion. He was ready to accept the perplexity of the motion of the heart put forward by his predecessors.[br /]
[br /]
In 1615, Harvey began to work on the idea that blood circulated around the body, his work was helped by the discovery of valves in the veins. He realized that these valves stopped the blood from traveling back to the heart. Blood letting continued to be a popular practice and it was not until the 20th century the doctors realized the importance of checking a patient’s blood flow by taking the pulse. Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation was central to proper understanding of the workings of the human body.[br /]
[br /]
Hieronymus Fabricus had observed the one-way valves in veins, but had not figured out exactly what their function was. Harvey proposed that blood flow through the body in a circular one way route. Harvey also proved that the blood went to the limbs via the arteries and not through the veins as Galen had claimed. Harvey proved this with an experiment. If a bandage was tied above the elbow, it was noted that the arteries below the bandage and wrist did not pulsate; above the obstruction the arteries swelled because of the blood pressure in it. At first the color of the hand did not change, but with time the temperature dropped because blood could not enter the hand. When the bandage was slackened, the color returned to the hand, the flow of blood and warmth was also felt. The veins swelled because blood could not pass through the arteries. This proved that the blood passed from the arteries into the veins and not from the veins into the arteries.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey bettered the theory of valves; he referred to them as “raised loose portions of the inner membrane of these vessels of extreme delicacy.” It was observed that the valves were present at irregular intervals, at first its function was formulated to cause hindrance to the blood by their weight and the auricles do not contain valves. Harvey through his experiments made the fact clear that the presence of valves was to prevent blood to flow in any direction from heart. It was observed that blood could not flow from a larger part of the vein to the smaller part, it was possible only to flow from the lesser vessels to the larger ones. In some places, there are two valves and they are fitted in such a way that when they are raised they come exactly together in the middle of the vein, and are united by their margins accurately to leave an opening. The main function was to prevent the flow of blood in wrong way.[br /]
[br /]
These observations were perfected by an experiment. He tried to insert a probe from the trunk veins into smaller branches. But because of the valves the passage was blocked, when entry was made from the opposite direction, it was easy to push the valves open; access was possible from the roots to the trunks.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s interest lay primarily in elucidating the facts of the movement of the heart and its relation to the circulation of blood. Fabricus had opened his eyes to comparative anatomy, and he tirelessly dissected every kind of living thing, from insects, earthworms, reptiles, birds to mammals. He seized every opportunity to increase his knowledge of pathology through postmortem examinations. He was an acute clinical observer of his patients, not overlooking their psychology.[br /]
[br /]
He was the first scientist to employ measurement of the content of the chambers of the heart and estimation of the total amount of blood in the body. The left ventricle holds about 2 ounces of blood, at every contraction it throws up 1/8 of the blood into the artery, it is about ½ an ounce. He also calculated that in one minute the heart pulsates 1,000 times. He brought the fact to light that the human body does not contain unlimited store of blood, it only contains about four pounds of blood. Harvey came to the conclusion that the same amount of blood was expelled and a likewise proportion was received with each throb of the heart.[br /]
[br /]
The continuous exchange of blood from the veins to the arteries was proved by a simple experiment. If the aorta is tied at the base of the heart and the carotid artery or any other artery was slit, it was found to be empty and the veins were full of blood. The fact was that there was no passage to the arteries other than through the lungs and heart.[br /]
[br /]
His theory of blood circulation motion is supported by the observation that sting of some insects or venom of a snake could contaminate the victim’s entire body. Once the poison is deposited in a particular part of the body, it is carried by the returning current of blood to the heart and then to the other parts of the body. This is possible only if the blood circulation follows a circular route.[br /]
[br /]
Aristotle compared this to the circular motion of the rain in nature, where the water evaporated by the sun, showers in form of rain. “The blood returns to the heart to recover its state of excellence, here it renews its fluidity, natural heat, and becomes powerful, fervid, a kind of treasury of life, and impregnated with spirits, it might be said with balsam, thence it is again dispersed. All this depends on the motion and action of the heart.”[br /]
[br /]
Another amazing occurrence is the healing. When medicine is applied on the skin, it exerts its influence on the body as if it had been taken internally. Medicines like Colocynth and Aloes move to the belly, Cantharides affect the urinary path, garlic applied to the soles of the feet assists expectoration; a number of examples can be cited. The veins with the help of their orifices absorb some of the medicine that is applied externally and carry this inward with the blood.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Foetal Blood Circulation[/b][br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s next breakthrough was in the area of foetal circulation. His observations proved that there was a vast difference in the circulation of blood in a foetus compared to an adult. The auricles which are ‘the first to live and last to die’ are out of proportion in the foetal stage, this peculiar size is due to the absence of the heart. In the initial stages of the foetus only a bloody point is seen to pulsate, it is supposed to be the vein of the umbilical cord. Later, when the outline of the foetus is distinct, the bloody point becomes fleshy and stronger; it also changes its position and later develops into heart.[br /]
[br /]
In the initial stage the lungs are inactive. Nature uses two ventricles for the distribution of blood and those routes are closed which were formerly used in the embryo and foetus. “Not only does she thereby open up new apparent channels for the passages of blood, but she even shuts up those which formerly existed”, Harvey paid his tribute to the Nature.[br /]
[br /]
The same is the case with the liver, which is one of the last organs to be formed in the embryo. The blood from the intestines of the foetus returns not through the liver, but into the umbilical vein and later into the heart, mingled with natural blood returning from the placenta. Whereas, in the incubated egg there are two umbilical vessels, one arises from the albumen and passes through the liver and goes straight to the heart, the other vessel starts from the yolk and ends in the vena portac. The chick at first is nourished by the white in the egg and later when it leaves the shell and assumes full growth, by the egg yolk.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Groundbreaking Research[/b][br /]
[br /]
Another Galen theory that Harvey proved wrong was about the production of blood. According to Galen, the blood was produced by the liver from the food a person eats and this was the reason why cows produced abundant milk and lactating mothers less. Harvey contradicted saying that the blood that circulates in human body is much more than the food intake.[br /]
[br /]
The one great misconception that took a long time to be solved was that of the connection between the heart and the lungs. It was seen that the pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein lost itself in the lungs. This raised a doubt about the supply of blood to the body, this made Galen say that “the blood is prepared in the liver and is thence transferred to the heart to receive its proper form and last perfection.” Harvey felt that if the anatomist had dissected lower animals this doubt would have been solved.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey has observed opposite characters in the heart of Eel and several other fish. The Eels even when skinned and embowelled and cut into pieces are seen to move. Even when the heart is taken out of the body, it palpitates when there is no motion in the auricles. He had carried out an experiment with a pigeon too. After the heart ceased to pulsate and the auricles too had become motionless, he kept a wet finger upon the heart, he observed that under this influence it recovered new strength and both the auricles and ventricles started pulsating.[br /]
[br /]
In the fish, the heart consists of a single ventricle, with the absence of lungs and it has a sac situated at the base of the heart which act like auricles, which forces the blood into the heart. These facts were confirmed by Harvey’s simple ocular inspection as well by the dissection of the blood vessels. He was able to prove that there was an open way by which the blood is transmitted from the veins through the cavities of the heart into the arteries, but he could not unravel the mystery how this exchange of the blood from veins to the arteries took place. The riddle was solved when Marcello Malpigi, a professor of Bologna, invented the microscope.[br /]
[br /]
At first scientists referred to both the arteries and veins as veins, they had not arrived at a conclusion about its working. According to Erasistratus, a scientist, arteries contained spirits and not blood. Galen had refuted this idea and made it clear that there was blood in the arteries. Harvey allayed everyone’s doubt and put forth his findings that arteries are vessels which carry blood from the heart and distribute it to all parts of the body, whereas the veins collect the impure blood from all parts of the body and bring it to the heart. When respiration was not discovered and the function of lungs was in question, Harvey was under the impression that the blood entered the lungs to prevent itself from boiling. At a later stage, he made it clear that the blood entered the lungs in order to get purified, where it was oxygenated and purified blood was sent to all parts of the body.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey's Untiring Efforts[br /]
[br /]
Harvey, while commenting on the vastness of the medical science said "When I see how many questions can be answered, how many doubts resolved, how much obscurity illustrated by the truth we have declared, the light we have made to shine, I see a field of such vast extent in which I might proceed so far, and expatiate so widely, that this my tractate would not only swell out into a volume, which was beyond my purpose, but my whole life, perchance, would not suffice for its completion."[br /]
[br /]
His dissections had made him familiar with the structure of different organs; he was able to differentiate the arteries and veins by seeing the internal structure and could surmise the external built. The arteries and the veins differ in structure, they are both strong and in the extreme part of the body they look alike, so it is not easy to discern with the naked eye. The greater the distance of the vessel from the heart, a very feeble pulse is felt, and moreover they are divided into fine branches spreading to all the parts of the body. Sometimes these capillaries resemble the veins.[br /]
[br /]
If a man has a muscular built then his flesh is firm and his heart is stronger, thicker, denser and more fibrous. The blood has 'its fountain, and store house, and the workshop of its last perfection, in the heart and lungs', according to Harvey. The pulmonary vein and left ventricle consists of black color and dotted blood, because the impure blood collected from all parts of the body reaches it. Likewise the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery are filled with pure blood, because exchange of blood keep taking place continuously. The pulmonary has a very large orifice because it carries and transports much more blood that is required for the nutrition of the lungs. Harvey, by these facts, was able to allay the doubts of the previous anatomists who had assigned to the arteries the work of the veins and vise versa.[br /]
[br /]
The main achievement of Harvey's life was is his active research into the difficult subject of reproduction in animals. This led to the publication of Anatomical Exercitations concerning the generation of Animals. The book was greatly influenced by theories and thoughts of Aristotle. Its main concern is with the development of the chicken in hen's eggs. Harvey insisted that the origin of the embryo is to be found in egg. He investigated the embryology of a deer. Having no microscope he could not see the spermatozoa. Aristotle had originated the theory of gradual formation of the embryo. Harvey agreed with Aristotle and crystallized the belief in the term 'epigenesis'.[br /]
[br /]
William Harvey was not satisfied with being the foremost anatomist of his day. He was intrigued by everything about the body. He speculated that humans and other mammals must reproduce through the joining of an egg and sperm. No other theory made sense. It was 200 years before a mammalian egg was finally observed, but Harvey's theory was so compelling and so well thought out that the world assumed he was right long before the discovery was actually made.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey, having spoken about the heart 'the fountain head of life', also spoke about death. 'Death is a corruption, which takes place through deficiency of heart'. Due to this, all living things are warm and cold. The heart is considered as the 'hearth and home' where the 'natural fire is stored and preserved'. He concluded, "Hence it is that if the heart be unaffected, life and health may be restored to almost all the other parts of the body; but if the heart be chilled, or smitten with any serious disease, it seems matter of necessity that the whole animal fabric should suffer and fall into decay."[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Heart[/b][br /]
[br /]
The working of the heart was a puzzle to most of the anatomists in the earlier centuries. As time passed a clear picture started to evolve. The earlier prevailing notion was that blood moved in the body because of arterial contractions. Harvey was able to discredit this fact by his tireless dissections. He succeeded to establish the relation between heart and blood circulation by dissecting the heart and blood circulation systems of animals. According to Harvey “I have used all my endeavor, bestowed all my pains on an attempt to produce something that should be agreeable to the good, profitable to the famed and useful to letters.”[br /]
[br /]
Until the 17th century, the works of scientists like Claudis Galen was used in medical schools. By then Andrews Vesalius, a scientist, had proved many of Galen’s ideas wrong. Harvey was an admirer of Galen. His first law of contention on Galen’s theory was about the beating of the heart. According to Galen the beating of pulse was the same as that of respiration. Harvey was able to prove that when the heart was erected it rose upwards to a point and at this juncture it beats against the chest and due to this the pulse is felt. Even a common man could surmise from the way Harvey put forward his theories. A person in anger, or exhausted by running, or having a warm bath could feel the pulse beat rapidly, whereas the respiration was less compared to the heartbeat. This made it clear that heartbeat and respiration did not complement each other, they had entirely different origins.[br /]
[br /]
The general ideas prevailed that the blood oozed through septum (the walls of the heart) from the right to the left ventricle. Harvey did away with this false conception. He made it clear that the septum of the heart was very thick compared to any part of the body. Nature has designed a more convenient passage: the pulmonary vein. The theory surrounding the septum sounded absurd as Harvey tried to prove that with aging the septum would become denser and would prevent the infiltration of blood. Harvey succeeded in laying bare these mysteries through his experiments.[br /]
[br /]
He portrayed a vivid picture of working of the heart. The heart works like a muscle, when it contracts the ventricles shrink and blood is expelled out, this makes the color of the heart become pale. When the heart rests the ventricle is filled with blood and the crimson color returns; all these actions take place at the same instant. The previous notion was that, the heart on its own had the power of drawing blood into the ventricles. Caspar Bauhin and John Roland, the famous anatomists, have observed that the heart has four motions, which take place in four distinct times. Harvey agrees with the four motions but not with the number of times. Harvey points out that the two auricles move at the same time and the two ventricles likewise, so the motion is performed in two times and not in four.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s observation about the heart is that all living creatures possess one, the warm-blooded creatures have red blood and the smaller creatures have pale blood. The heartbeats of the cold-blooded are very slow, in winter these animals do not show any pulsation, they ‘live after the manner of vegetables’. Another amazing thing that he noted was that a whole kingdom of 300 zoophytes exists which have no heart, and the whole body works as a heart.[br /]
[br /]
The heart is the source and fountain of all actions taking place in the human body. Man’s whole life depends on the food he eats; he can lead a normal life only if the digestion and distribution of energy is perfect. It is the only organ, which contains blood for general use; all other parts receive it to perform their particular functions. The heart is situated in such an advantageous position that it can distribute blood in due proportion, it can disburse specified quantity, according to the size of the artery.[br /]
[br /]
He studied the development of heart in chicks, within the first week of incubation a drop of blood appears and it palpitates, then the auricles develop and show constant signs of life. When the outline of the body begins to take shape the ventricles appear, but they are white and apparently bloodless with no signs of motion, so it is believed that the auricles and ventricles come to life before the heart and die after it. Harvey observed through his experiments that the heart ceases to pulsate sooner than the auricles and then the ventricle and finally all the other parts of the body come to a rest or death occurs. Aristotle, the great philosopher sums it up “Whence that in animals, which was last created, fails first and that which was first, fails last.[br /]
[br /]
By using greater diligence and investigation, and by frequent inspection and numerous collating observations, he was able to reveal the truth, he felt like ‘extricating himself from a labyrinth’. Harvey learnt that when the heart becomes tense, the blood is expelled, when it relaxes it receives the blood. Through his dissections, he proved that when the chest of a living animal is laid open the heart is seen alternatively moving and resting. When the right ventricle contracts, the pulmonary artery is filled with blood and distended by the blood forced into it, all the arteries are filled and they pulsate due to this. The pulses of the arteries are due to the forceful intake of the blood from the left ventricle.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was able to prove this beyond doubt when he treated a patient with a large pulsating tumor on the right side of the neck, which increased daily because of the blood received from the artery. The connection between the heart and the artery was obvious only after the postmortem of the patient. The pulse in the corresponding arm was small because a large portion of blood was diverted to the tumor. The conclusion was that whenever there is an impediment in the path of the artery the arteries beat with less force.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey was the first to adopt scientific methods for the solution of biological problems; he was a forerunner of the method and even today a true scientist follows Harvey’s approach. A 19th century anatomist, William Osler praised Harvey for this mode of approach, which marked the break of the modern spirit with the old traditions. Careful observations and accurate description was not the end to experiments, Osler said, “But here for the first time a great physiological problem was approached from the experimental side by a man with a modern scientific mind, who could weigh evidence and not go beyond it, and who had the sense to let the conclusions emerge naturally but firmly from the observations.” [br /]
[br /]
[b]Blood Circulation[/b][br /]
[br /]
Once the study on the structure of the heart was perfected he ventured into the study of its function. He wanted to discover the truth by actual inspection and not from the theories of others. Harvey was familiar with the idea that contraction and expansion take place in the heart, but he was not able to say when and where it occurred due to the rapidity of the motion. He was ready to accept the perplexity of the motion of the heart put forward by his predecessors.[br /]
[br /]
In 1615, Harvey began to work on the idea that blood circulated around the body, his work was helped by the discovery of valves in the veins. He realized that these valves stopped the blood from traveling back to the heart. Blood letting continued to be a popular practice and it was not until the 20th century the doctors realized the importance of checking a patient’s blood flow by taking the pulse. Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation was central to proper understanding of the workings of the human body.[br /]
[br /]
Hieronymus Fabricus had observed the one-way valves in veins, but had not figured out exactly what their function was. Harvey proposed that blood flow through the body in a circular one way route. Harvey also proved that the blood went to the limbs via the arteries and not through the veins as Galen had claimed. Harvey proved this with an experiment. If a bandage was tied above the elbow, it was noted that the arteries below the bandage and wrist did not pulsate; above the obstruction the arteries swelled because of the blood pressure in it. At first the color of the hand did not change, but with time the temperature dropped because blood could not enter the hand. When the bandage was slackened, the color returned to the hand, the flow of blood and warmth was also felt. The veins swelled because blood could not pass through the arteries. This proved that the blood passed from the arteries into the veins and not from the veins into the arteries.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey bettered the theory of valves; he referred to them as “raised loose portions of the inner membrane of these vessels of extreme delicacy.” It was observed that the valves were present at irregular intervals, at first its function was formulated to cause hindrance to the blood by their weight and the auricles do not contain valves. Harvey through his experiments made the fact clear that the presence of valves was to prevent blood to flow in any direction from heart. It was observed that blood could not flow from a larger part of the vein to the smaller part, it was possible only to flow from the lesser vessels to the larger ones. In some places, there are two valves and they are fitted in such a way that when they are raised they come exactly together in the middle of the vein, and are united by their margins accurately to leave an opening. The main function was to prevent the flow of blood in wrong way.[br /]
[br /]
These observations were perfected by an experiment. He tried to insert a probe from the trunk veins into smaller branches. But because of the valves the passage was blocked, when entry was made from the opposite direction, it was easy to push the valves open; access was possible from the roots to the trunks.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s interest lay primarily in elucidating the facts of the movement of the heart and its relation to the circulation of blood. Fabricus had opened his eyes to comparative anatomy, and he tirelessly dissected every kind of living thing, from insects, earthworms, reptiles, birds to mammals. He seized every opportunity to increase his knowledge of pathology through postmortem examinations. He was an acute clinical observer of his patients, not overlooking their psychology.[br /]
[br /]
He was the first scientist to employ measurement of the content of the chambers of the heart and estimation of the total amount of blood in the body. The left ventricle holds about 2 ounces of blood, at every contraction it throws up 1/8 of the blood into the artery, it is about ½ an ounce. He also calculated that in one minute the heart pulsates 1,000 times. He brought the fact to light that the human body does not contain unlimited store of blood, it only contains about four pounds of blood. Harvey came to the conclusion that the same amount of blood was expelled and a likewise proportion was received with each throb of the heart.[br /]
[br /]
The continuous exchange of blood from the veins to the arteries was proved by a simple experiment. If the aorta is tied at the base of the heart and the carotid artery or any other artery was slit, it was found to be empty and the veins were full of blood. The fact was that there was no passage to the arteries other than through the lungs and heart.[br /]
[br /]
His theory of blood circulation motion is supported by the observation that sting of some insects or venom of a snake could contaminate the victim’s entire body. Once the poison is deposited in a particular part of the body, it is carried by the returning current of blood to the heart and then to the other parts of the body. This is possible only if the blood circulation follows a circular route.[br /]
[br /]
Aristotle compared this to the circular motion of the rain in nature, where the water evaporated by the sun, showers in form of rain. “The blood returns to the heart to recover its state of excellence, here it renews its fluidity, natural heat, and becomes powerful, fervid, a kind of treasury of life, and impregnated with spirits, it might be said with balsam, thence it is again dispersed. All this depends on the motion and action of the heart.”[br /]
[br /]
Another amazing occurrence is the healing. When medicine is applied on the skin, it exerts its influence on the body as if it had been taken internally. Medicines like Colocynth and Aloes move to the belly, Cantharides affect the urinary path, garlic applied to the soles of the feet assists expectoration; a number of examples can be cited. The veins with the help of their orifices absorb some of the medicine that is applied externally and carry this inward with the blood.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Foetal Blood Circulation[/b][br /]
[br /]
Harvey’s next breakthrough was in the area of foetal circulation. His observations proved that there was a vast difference in the circulation of blood in a foetus compared to an adult. The auricles which are ‘the first to live and last to die’ are out of proportion in the foetal stage, this peculiar size is due to the absence of the heart. In the initial stages of the foetus only a bloody point is seen to pulsate, it is supposed to be the vein of the umbilical cord. Later, when the outline of the foetus is distinct, the bloody point becomes fleshy and stronger; it also changes its position and later develops into heart.[br /]
[br /]
In the initial stage the lungs are inactive. Nature uses two ventricles for the distribution of blood and those routes are closed which were formerly used in the embryo and foetus. “Not only does she thereby open up new apparent channels for the passages of blood, but she even shuts up those which formerly existed”, Harvey paid his tribute to the Nature.[br /]
[br /]
The same is the case with the liver, which is one of the last organs to be formed in the embryo. The blood from the intestines of the foetus returns not through the liver, but into the umbilical vein and later into the heart, mingled with natural blood returning from the placenta. Whereas, in the incubated egg there are two umbilical vessels, one arises from the albumen and passes through the liver and goes straight to the heart, the other vessel starts from the yolk and ends in the vena portac. The chick at first is nourished by the white in the egg and later when it leaves the shell and assumes full growth, by the egg yolk.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Groundbreaking Research[/b][br /]
[br /]
Another Galen theory that Harvey proved wrong was about the production of blood. According to Galen, the blood was produced by the liver from the food a person eats and this was the reason why cows produced abundant milk and lactating mothers less. Harvey contradicted saying that the blood that circulates in human body is much more than the food intake.[br /]
[br /]
The one great misconception that took a long time to be solved was that of the connection between the heart and the lungs. It was seen that the pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein lost itself in the lungs. This raised a doubt about the supply of blood to the body, this made Galen say that “the blood is prepared in the liver and is thence transferred to the heart to receive its proper form and last perfection.” Harvey felt that if the anatomist had dissected lower animals this doubt would have been solved.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey has observed opposite characters in the heart of Eel and several other fish. The Eels even when skinned and embowelled and cut into pieces are seen to move. Even when the heart is taken out of the body, it palpitates when there is no motion in the auricles. He had carried out an experiment with a pigeon too. After the heart ceased to pulsate and the auricles too had become motionless, he kept a wet finger upon the heart, he observed that under this influence it recovered new strength and both the auricles and ventricles started pulsating.[br /]
[br /]
In the fish, the heart consists of a single ventricle, with the absence of lungs and it has a sac situated at the base of the heart which act like auricles, which forces the blood into the heart. These facts were confirmed by Harvey’s simple ocular inspection as well by the dissection of the blood vessels. He was able to prove that there was an open way by which the blood is transmitted from the veins through the cavities of the heart into the arteries, but he could not unravel the mystery how this exchange of the blood from veins to the arteries took place. The riddle was solved when Marcello Malpigi, a professor of Bologna, invented the microscope.[br /]
[br /]
At first scientists referred to both the arteries and veins as veins, they had not arrived at a conclusion about its working. According to Erasistratus, a scientist, arteries contained spirits and not blood. Galen had refuted this idea and made it clear that there was blood in the arteries. Harvey allayed everyone’s doubt and put forth his findings that arteries are vessels which carry blood from the heart and distribute it to all parts of the body, whereas the veins collect the impure blood from all parts of the body and bring it to the heart. When respiration was not discovered and the function of lungs was in question, Harvey was under the impression that the blood entered the lungs to prevent itself from boiling. At a later stage, he made it clear that the blood entered the lungs in order to get purified, where it was oxygenated and purified blood was sent to all parts of the body.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey's Untiring Efforts[br /]
[br /]
Harvey, while commenting on the vastness of the medical science said "When I see how many questions can be answered, how many doubts resolved, how much obscurity illustrated by the truth we have declared, the light we have made to shine, I see a field of such vast extent in which I might proceed so far, and expatiate so widely, that this my tractate would not only swell out into a volume, which was beyond my purpose, but my whole life, perchance, would not suffice for its completion."[br /]
[br /]
His dissections had made him familiar with the structure of different organs; he was able to differentiate the arteries and veins by seeing the internal structure and could surmise the external built. The arteries and the veins differ in structure, they are both strong and in the extreme part of the body they look alike, so it is not easy to discern with the naked eye. The greater the distance of the vessel from the heart, a very feeble pulse is felt, and moreover they are divided into fine branches spreading to all the parts of the body. Sometimes these capillaries resemble the veins.[br /]
[br /]
If a man has a muscular built then his flesh is firm and his heart is stronger, thicker, denser and more fibrous. The blood has 'its fountain, and store house, and the workshop of its last perfection, in the heart and lungs', according to Harvey. The pulmonary vein and left ventricle consists of black color and dotted blood, because the impure blood collected from all parts of the body reaches it. Likewise the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery are filled with pure blood, because exchange of blood keep taking place continuously. The pulmonary has a very large orifice because it carries and transports much more blood that is required for the nutrition of the lungs. Harvey, by these facts, was able to allay the doubts of the previous anatomists who had assigned to the arteries the work of the veins and vise versa.[br /]
[br /]
The main achievement of Harvey's life was is his active research into the difficult subject of reproduction in animals. This led to the publication of Anatomical Exercitations concerning the generation of Animals. The book was greatly influenced by theories and thoughts of Aristotle. Its main concern is with the development of the chicken in hen's eggs. Harvey insisted that the origin of the embryo is to be found in egg. He investigated the embryology of a deer. Having no microscope he could not see the spermatozoa. Aristotle had originated the theory of gradual formation of the embryo. Harvey agreed with Aristotle and crystallized the belief in the term 'epigenesis'.[br /]
[br /]
William Harvey was not satisfied with being the foremost anatomist of his day. He was intrigued by everything about the body. He speculated that humans and other mammals must reproduce through the joining of an egg and sperm. No other theory made sense. It was 200 years before a mammalian egg was finally observed, but Harvey's theory was so compelling and so well thought out that the world assumed he was right long before the discovery was actually made.[br /]
[br /]
Harvey, having spoken about the heart 'the fountain head of life', also spoke about death. 'Death is a corruption, which takes place through deficiency of heart'. Due to this, all living things are warm and cold. The heart is considered as the 'hearth and home' where the 'natural fire is stored and preserved'. He concluded, "Hence it is that if the heart be unaffected, life and health may be restored to almost all the other parts of the body; but if the heart be chilled, or smitten with any serious disease, it seems matter of necessity that the whole animal fabric should suffer and fall into decay."[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
"The heart of animals is the foundation of their life, the sovereign of everything within them, the sun of their microcosm, that upon which all growth depends."[br /]
[br /]
"To, err, to be deceived, is human, that many things are discovered by accident and they may be learned indifferently from any quarter, by an old man from a youth, by a person of understanding from one of inferior capacity".[br /]
[br /]
"There is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours, that is innate, none but what has been obtained from experience, or derived in some way from our senses."[br /]
[br /]
"Memory cannot exist without endurance of the things perceived, and the thing perceived cannot remain where it has never been."[br /]
[br /]
"The heart is the household divinity which, discharging its function, nourishes, cherishes, quickens the whole body, and is indeed the foundation of life, the source of all action."[br /]
[br /]
"All we know is still infinitely less than all the remains unknown."[br /]
[br /]
"I should scare hope that it could come out scatheless and complete, for you have in general been the faithful witness of almost all the instances from which I have either collected the truth or confuted error."[br /]
[br /]
"True philosophers, who are only eager for truth and knowledge, never regard themselves as already so thoroughly informed, but that they welcome further information from whomsoever and from wheresoever it may come."[br /]
[br /]
"All we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown."[br /]
[br /]
"The dull and un-intellectual are indisposed to see what lies before their eyes, and even deny the light of the moonday sun."[br /]
[br /]
"I profess both to learn and to teach anatomy, not from books but from dissections, not from the positions of philosophers but from the fabric of nature."[br /]
[br /]
"I do not think it right or proper to strive to take from the ancients any honor that is their due, nor yet to dispute with the moderns, and enter into controversy with those who have excelled in anatomy."[br /]
[br /]
"I would not charge with willful falsehood anyone who was sincerely anxious for truth, nor lay it to any one's door as a crime that he had fallen into error."[br /]
[br /]
"What is true may be confirmed, and what is false set right by dissection, multiplied experience, and accurate observation."[br /]
[br /]
"Thus, nature, ever perfect and divine, doing nothing in vain, has neither given a heart where it was not required, nor produced it before necessary."[br /]
[br /]
On Problems with Journalism:[br /]
[br /]
"The crowd of foolish scribblers is scarcely less than the swarms of flies in the height of summer, and threatens with their crude and flimsy productions to stifle us as with smoke."[br /]
[br /]
On his Discovery of the Quantity of Blood passing through the Heart :[br /]
[br /]
"(The truth is) so novel and unheard of that I tremble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies, so much doth wont and custom become a second nature. Doctrine once sown strikes deep its root and respect for antiquity influences all men. Still the die is cast, and my trust is in my love of truth and the candor of cultivated minds." [br /]
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"To, err, to be deceived, is human, that many things are discovered by accident and they may be learned indifferently from any quarter, by an old man from a youth, by a person of understanding from one of inferior capacity".[br /]
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"There is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours, that is innate, none but what has been obtained from experience, or derived in some way from our senses."[br /]
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"Memory cannot exist without endurance of the things perceived, and the thing perceived cannot remain where it has never been."[br /]
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"The heart is the household divinity which, discharging its function, nourishes, cherishes, quickens the whole body, and is indeed the foundation of life, the source of all action."[br /]
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"All we know is still infinitely less than all the remains unknown."[br /]
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"I should scare hope that it could come out scatheless and complete, for you have in general been the faithful witness of almost all the instances from which I have either collected the truth or confuted error."[br /]
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"True philosophers, who are only eager for truth and knowledge, never regard themselves as already so thoroughly informed, but that they welcome further information from whomsoever and from wheresoever it may come."[br /]
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"All we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown."[br /]
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"The dull and un-intellectual are indisposed to see what lies before their eyes, and even deny the light of the moonday sun."[br /]
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"I profess both to learn and to teach anatomy, not from books but from dissections, not from the positions of philosophers but from the fabric of nature."[br /]
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"I do not think it right or proper to strive to take from the ancients any honor that is their due, nor yet to dispute with the moderns, and enter into controversy with those who have excelled in anatomy."[br /]
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"I would not charge with willful falsehood anyone who was sincerely anxious for truth, nor lay it to any one's door as a crime that he had fallen into error."[br /]
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"What is true may be confirmed, and what is false set right by dissection, multiplied experience, and accurate observation."[br /]
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"Thus, nature, ever perfect and divine, doing nothing in vain, has neither given a heart where it was not required, nor produced it before necessary."[br /]
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On Problems with Journalism:[br /]
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"The crowd of foolish scribblers is scarcely less than the swarms of flies in the height of summer, and threatens with their crude and flimsy productions to stifle us as with smoke."[br /]
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On his Discovery of the Quantity of Blood passing through the Heart :[br /]
[br /]
"(The truth is) so novel and unheard of that I tremble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies, so much doth wont and custom become a second nature. Doctrine once sown strikes deep its root and respect for antiquity influences all men. Still the die is cast, and my trust is in my love of truth and the candor of cultivated minds." [br /]
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