xxxiv THE LIFE OF HARVEY. 



which his brother William must have accumulated before the 

 civil wars broke out, to such purpose, that the doctor actually 

 died a rich man. With his brothers, then, retreating now to 

 the "leads" of the house in the heart of the metropolis, now 

 to the " caves" of the one at Combe, did Harvey continue to 

 pass his days but not in idleness; for the work on Generation, 

 with the subject of which we saw him busied at Oxford several 

 years, before, must have found him in ample occupation. Nor 

 was the love of ease so great in William Harvey, even at the 

 advanced age of seventy-one, if we may credit some of the 

 accounts, as to hinder him from again visiting the Continent, 

 and making his way as far as Italy, a journey in which it is 

 said he was attended by his friend the accomplished scholar 

 and gentleman, Dr. Ent. 1 



In the beginning of 1651 appeared the second of Harvey's 

 great works, that, namely, On Animal Generation. 2 In this 

 publication we have abundant proof of our author's unabated 

 industry and devotion to physiological science; and in the 

 long and admirable letter to P. M. Slegel, of Hamburg, written 

 shortly after the appearance of the work, we have pleasing 

 evidence of the integrity of Harvey's faculties at the advanced 

 age of seventy -three. 



The year after the publication of the work on Generation, 

 i. e. 1652, when Harvey was looked up to by common consent as 

 the most distinguished anatomist and physician of his age, the 

 College of Physicians came to the resolution of placing his 

 statue in their hall then occupying a site at Amen-corner ; and 

 measures being immediately taken in conformity with this 

 purpose, it was carried into effect by the end of the year, 



1 This rather arduous undertaking in those days was accomplished, according to 

 Aubrey, about the year 1649. But I have found so much to excite doubt in 

 Aubrey's Notes, that I greatly suspect the accuracy of his statement about the 

 journey to Italy. 



8 De Generatione Animalium, 4to, London, 1651. 



