viii PREFACE. 



this would have been almost as obviously out of place as com- 

 mentary, and the inclination towards such an agreeable under- 

 taking was also resisted. 



It appeared, nevertheless, that the Works of our great 

 physiological discoverer might be advantageously prefaced by 

 some account of his Life and Writings. One great motive with 

 me, indeed, for undertaking the office of Editor of the Works 

 of Harvey was, that I might thus find a fitting opportunity for 

 writing his life, a task which, in other circumstances than 

 those that now surround me, it had still been a cherished 

 purpose with me to perform. The Life of Harvey, by one 

 who had maintained a familiarity with anatomy and physi- 

 ology, had always seemed to me a desideratum in our medical 

 literature. 



This portion of my work I have only achieved with 

 an ' effort, and at something like disadvantage. Inces- 

 santly engaged by night and by day in the laborious and 

 responsible duties of a country practice, enjoying nothing of 

 learned leisure, but snatching from the hours that should 

 rightfully be given to rest, the time that was necessary to 

 composition, remote too from means of information which I 

 must nevertheless send for and consult for I could not draw 

 entirely upon memory and old recollections of Harvey, I have 

 been much longer about this work than its length might indi- 

 cate. In spite of many disadvantages, however, I trust it will 

 be found that I have included everything of moment in my 

 narrative of the life of Harvey ; that I have set his claims to 

 the whole and sole merit of the discovery of the Circulation in 

 a new and clearer light than they have yet been seen ; and 

 that I*have done more than any preceding biographer in exhi- 

 biting his moral nature ; for truly he was as noble in nature 

 as he was intellectually great. 



