4 6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



particularly sorry to have to say that the first person to write formally 

 against Harvey was a Scotsman, a Dr. Primrose. He had been a pupil 

 of Riolanus; he published his feeble tract in 1630. Harvey never 

 replied to Primrose, probably because his book was sheer Galenism 

 and because he had only just been admitted into the College of Physi- 

 cians, Harvey being one of his examiners. This Dr. James Primrose 

 was of the same family that gave rise to that of the Earls of Rosebery. 

 A longer, but still weaker, protest was made in 1635 by one Parisanus, 

 of Venice ; Harvey did not reply to this, either ; there was nothing new 

 in it. 



Caspar Hoffman of Altdorf was, in point of time, the next objector, 

 as we gather from Harvey's letter to him dated May, 1636. Hoffman's 

 difficulty is one very typical of the prescientific spirit, the spirit of the 

 middle ages ; it is this : Harvey has made out nature to be a clumsy 

 and inefficient artificer in causing the blood to return again and again 

 to the heart to be reconcocted. This objection we should now call 

 teleological ; Harvey's reply virtually is, that teleological difficulties 

 must not prevent our drawing conclusions from facts observable in the 

 living animal. Blood constantly pours through the heart in one direc- 

 tion only; if we can not explain this, that must not prevent our 

 admitting that it does so. Harvey virtually says : you must not 

 weight your physiology with a teological load. 



The difficulty of Professor Vesling of Padua was neither frivolous 

 nor antiquated, it was a real one: how is it possible for the blood in 

 arteries and veins to be the same blood when it is scarlet in the one and 

 purple in the other? This would be a difficulty to us still, if we did 

 not know the physico-chemical reasons for the change of color. Nat- 

 urally, Harvey's answer is not any explanation of the change of color; 

 he can only emphasize the arguments of the "De Motu," which are so 

 full and so convincing to those capable of appreciating the experi- 

 mental method. 



It can not be said that Harvey's life was destitute of incident, for 

 his appointment as physician to Charles brought him into contact with 

 many interesting and distinguished people, and led him into many 

 stirring scenes. He accompanied Charles at least on one visit to 

 Scotland, namely, that for his coronation in 1633. We know this, 

 because there exists in the records of St. Bartholomew's Hospital a 

 request for Harvey to absent himself, and that a substitute be allowed 

 to act for him. Harvey was a very great deal with the king and 

 accompanied His Majesty on his hunting expeditions, when he had 

 opportunities of examining the bodies of deer, observations he turned 

 to good account in his work on development (" De generatione"). 



It can not but be interesting to some of us to know that William 

 Harvey was in Edinburgh. As personal attendant on the king, he 



