xliv THE LIFE OF HARVEY. 



and make a demonstration of the new views before him. 

 Unhappily this was done in vain; for Hofmann continued un- 

 convinced, though, towards the end of his very long life, he 

 did show some signs of yielding. 1 



Joannes Veslingius, professor in the University of Padua, 

 and one of the best anatomists of the age, about this time, ad- 

 dressed two letters to Harvey, in which he politely but candidly 

 states his objections to the new doctrine. One great difficulty 

 with Veslingius was the remarkable difference between the 

 colour of the arterial and the venous blood. It did not seem 

 possible to him that the fluid, which was of a bright scarlet in 

 the arteries, could be the same as the dark-coloured fluid 

 which is found in the veins. In the course of his letter, 

 Veslingius takes occasion to animadvert on the uncivil tone 

 and indifferent style of the productions of Primerose and 

 Parisanus. 2 



But the theory of the double circulation was not now to 

 meet with opposition only ; the comprehensive intellect that had 

 seized and worked that theorem to a rational demonstration 

 was no longer to be left alone against the world in its defence. 

 Roger Drake, a young Englishman, had the honour of appear- 

 ing in his inaugural dissertation, proposed under the auspices 

 of Joannes Walseus, the distinguished professor of Leyden, in 

 1639, as the enlightened advocate of the Harveian views ; and 

 in the course of the same year, H. Regius (Leroy) also came 

 forward at Utrecht with certain Theses favorable to the doc- 

 trine of the circulation. Ten years had not lessened Prime- 

 rose's enmity to Harvey and his views ; for, on the appearance 

 of these academical essays, he speedily showed himself again 

 in the field as their opponent, publishing distinct animadver- 



1 Vide Slegel, De Sang. Motu in Praef. 



8 Veslingius's letters may be found in hisX)bservationes Anatomic^ et Epist. Med. 

 ex schedis pothumis, 12mo, Hafn. 1664. It is much to be regretted that the replies 

 which Harvey doubtless wrote to these epistles have not been preserved. 



