HIS PUBLIC CAREER. xxiii 



of the heart and blood could not but speedily have reached 

 the wide-open ears of King James, and this of itself, to lay no 

 stress on the powerful city interest of the illustrious anatomist, 

 might suffice to ensure him such a mark of distinction as that 

 just named. Of the precise date of his appointment as 

 physician extraordinary to the king we are not informed ; but 

 in the letter of James bearing date the 3d of February, 1623, 

 it is spoken of as a thing foregone that had taken place 

 some time ago ; for in this letter Doctor Harvey is charged in 

 common with the physicians in ordinary, with the care of the 

 king's health ; and he is further guaranteed the reversion of the 

 office of ordinary physician whenever, by death or otherwise, 

 a vacancy should occur. To the promised dignity, however, 

 Harvey did not attain for several years, not till after the 

 demise of James, and when Charles had already occupied the 

 throne of his father for some five or six years. 



Harvey may now be said to have become rather closely 

 connected with the court ; but whether this connexion proved 

 truly advantageous to him as a philosopher and physiologist 

 may fairly be questioned. The time and service which the 

 court physician must necessarily give to royalty and greatness 

 interfere materially with the leisure and privacy that are 

 indispensable to study and meditation. But Harvey, who 

 appears to have been a man of singular self-possession, not to 

 be diverted from his purpose by trifling or merely ceremonial 

 considerations, always speaks of his master Charles in terms 

 of unfeigned love and respect ; and everything induces us to 

 believe that Charles in turn loved and honoured his physician. 

 The sovereign seems even to have taken a remarkable interest 

 in the inquiries of the physiologist ; to have had several exhi- 

 bitions prepared of the punctum saliens in the embryo chick 

 and deer, and to have witnessed the dissections of many of the 

 does which he so liberally placed at Harvey's disposal whilst 

 the anatomist was prosecuting his inquiries into the subject of 



