42 HERBERT ALBERT RATNER 



and Savior Christ Jesus and my bodie to the Earth to be buried 

 at the discretion of my executor . . ," " 



Before we can determine whether Harvev was a modem 

 or an ancient scientist, we must first know him as the great 

 scientist he was. The twentieth century scientist, more nar- 

 rowly educated for the most part, pays only lip service to 

 Harvey's greatness. We can say about most contemporary sci- 

 entists concerning Harvey, what Galen said about his contem- 

 poraries concerning Hippocrates: they admire him, but do not 

 read him; when they read him, they do not understand him; 

 when they understand him, they fail to put into practice what 

 he has taught.^ 



Characterizing the lip service of contemporary biologists and 

 physicians is the unexpressed and hidden belief — a reflection of 

 our current pride and prejudice — that what Harvey enunciated 

 was so obvious, so easily discoverable, so easily observable by 

 all beginning students, that the uniqueness of his discovery was 

 principally his ability to liberate himself from the yoke of 

 ancient traditions, thought and terminology — from dark ages, 

 sterile scholasticism, authoritarianism and philosophical en- 

 croachments — sufliciently to see what in itself was so patently 

 observable. Even then, Harvey's liberation was incomplete 

 according to many historians. 



Part of the modem difficulty stems from not reading him. 

 Typical of the difficulty is the belief that Harvey's discovery 

 of the circulation of the blood was a sense observation rather 

 than a conclusion resulting from reason utilizing inductions 

 from sense observations, as principles or propositions in a 

 demonstration. 



Part of the modem difficulty also stems from those who have 

 read him, but not well. Many such readers have failed to ap- 

 preciate the complexity of obtaining a new and true conclusion 

 within a context in which the old conclusion was a plausible 

 part of an integrated body of knowledge. The modern reader, 



' Ibid., p. Ixxxix. 



'' Galen, Si quis optimus medicus est, eundem esse philosophum,, among Isagogici 

 libri, in Opera omnia, 9th ed. (Venetiis, apud Juntas: 1625), fol. 6r-v. 



