THE LIFE OF WILLIAM HARVEY, M.D. 



WILLIAM HARVEY, the immortal discoverer of the Circu- 

 lation of the Blood, was the eldest son of Thomas Harvey and 

 Joan Halke, of Folkstone, in Kent, where he was born on the 

 1st of April, 1578. 1 Of the parents of Harvey, little is 

 known. His father, in our printed accounts, is generally de- 

 signated Gentleman, 2 and must have been in easy circum- 

 stances ; inasmuch as he had a numerous family, consisting 

 of seven sons and two daughters, all the males of which he felt 

 himself competent to launch upon life in courses that imply 

 the possession of money wealth. William, the first-born, 

 adopted the profession of physic. Five of his brothers, 

 Thomas, Daniel, Eliab, Michael, and Matthew were mer- 

 chants, and not merchants in a small and niggardly way 

 non tenues et sordidi, as Dr. Lawrence has it in his Life of 

 Harvey, 3 but of weight and substance magni et copiosi, 

 trading especially with Turkey or the Levant, then the main 

 channel through which the wealth of the East flowed into 

 Europe. The Harveys were undoubtedly men of considera- 

 tion in the city of London, and several of them, in the end, 



1 The birthday in some of the lives is stated to be the 2d of April, for no better 

 reason apparently than that All-fools' Day should not lose its character by giving 

 birth to a great man. William Harvey, I believe, was born on the 1st of April. 



2 In the register of William Harvey's matriculation at Cambridge his father is 

 styled Yeoman Cantianus Kentish yeoman. 



3 Prefixed to the Latin edition of Harvey's Works published by the Royal 

 College of Physicians, in two vols. 4to, 1766. 



b 



