HIS WORKS. xlv 



sions upon each of the inaugural dissertations in the course of 

 the year. 1 Regius (Leroy), a man of much less mind and 

 information than Drake, if we may decide from their works, 

 was, in turn, not slow to encounter Primerose ; 2 and the spirit 

 in which he did so, as well as the temper and taste of the 

 reply which Primerose, true to his controversial nature, very 

 soon produced, 3 may, to a certain extent, be imagined from 

 the titles of their several productions, which are given below. 



Still more illustrious advocates of the Harveian circulation 

 presented themselves in Werner Rolfink, 4 professor of anatomy 

 at Jena, and the celebrated Renatus Descartes. Rolfink, from his 

 position and his popularity as a teacher, had immense influence 

 in disseminating the new doctrine over Europe ; and Descartes, 

 under the segis of his powerful name, was no less effective by 

 means of his writings. 5 Opposed in his advocacy of the 

 Harveian views by Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius, professor of 

 Louvain, Descartes made himself still more thoroughly master 

 of the subject, and when he next appears as its advocate, 

 which he does by and by, he even appeals to the experiments 

 he had made on living animals in support of his convictions 

 and conclusions. 



The controversy on the circulation had been carried on up 

 to this time abroad rather than at home ; Harvey seems to 

 have won over to his side all the men of his own country who, 

 by their education and acquirements, might have been fitted to 

 array themselves against him : his lectures at the College of 

 Physicians had apparently satisfied all his contemporaries. 

 But now one of Harvey's own countrymen made his appear- 



1 Animadversiones in J. Walaei (Drake) Disputationem quam pro Circulatione 

 Sanguinis proposuit, 4to, Amst. 1639. Animad. in Theses quas pro Circulat. Sang. 

 Hen. Regius proposuit, 4to, Leidae, 1640. 



2 Spongia qua eluuntur sordes Animad. quas Jac. Primirosius advers. Theses, &c., 

 edidit. 4to, Leidae, 1640. 



3 Antidotum adversus Spongiam Venenatam Hen. Regii, 4to, Leidaa, 1640. 



4 Epist. duae ad Th. Bartholinum de Motu Chyli et Sanguinis, 8vo, Leid. 1641. 



5 Epist. Cartesii, 4to, Amst. 1668. 



