48 CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 



throne three years previously, and this dedication is of 

 some interest as showing the cast of Harvey's mind. 

 He begins it by comparing the king in his kingdom 

 with the heart in the midst of the body. The com- 

 parison is borrowed from Harvey's favourite author, 

 Aristotle. 



In the introduction which follows, Harvey sets forth 

 the views that had been held as to the structure of the 

 heart and the motion of the blood. These we have for 

 the most part already discussed. Then follow seventeen 

 chapters in which the subject is demonstrated. It is on 

 these chapters that Harvey's title to fame is based. We 

 shall attempt to epitomise them. 



Harvey's book, though very convincing, is by no 

 means easy reading. For this there are various reasons. 

 Thus he frequently refers to ancient authorities, with 

 whom the modern reader is unfamiliar. It was necessary 

 for him to deal with these ancient authorities, because 

 they provided the current views of the seventeenth 

 century. To a reader nowadays, however, the constant 

 return to the opinion of the ancients often forms an 

 obstacle to the understanding of Harvey's argument. In 

 Harvey's time, too, men were unaccustomed to the 

 physiological method of research. He had therefore to 

 devote much of his space to justifying deductions drawn 

 from one creature being applied to another, matters 

 that are now often mere physiological commonplaces. 

 Again, the Latin style selected by Harvey is not well 

 adapted to scientific discussion. The sentences are often 

 exceedingly involved, and there are passages too that 

 are by no means easy to understand or to render. The 

 resulting translation is, therefore, bound to be somewhat 

 quaint, and Harvey, we must remember, was conserva- 

 tive in reading and outlook even for his own time. More- 

 over, the actual division and arrangement of the. subject- 



