Hi THE LIFE OF HARVEY. 



the Harveian doctrine. 1 But this was only for a brief season ; 

 for Domenic de Marchettis 2 soon after showed that Folius had 

 mistaken an extremely rare occurrence for a general fact, and 

 that if the open foramen ovale might afford a passage from 

 the right to the left side of the heart in one case, closed it 

 would suffer no such transit in hundreds of other instances. 

 Gassendi, moreover, by getting still more out of his depth, 

 soon afterwards showed that familiarity with general physics 

 did not imply a particular knowledge of anatomy, nor give the 

 power of reasoning sagely on subjects of special physiology ; 

 so that in his eagerness to assail Harvey he did injury in the end 

 only to his own reputation. In short, Harvey in his lifetime 

 had the high satisfaction of witnessing his discovery generally 

 received, and inculcated as a canon in most of the medical schools 

 of Europe ; he is, therefore, one of the few his friend Thomas 

 Hobbes says, he was the only one within his knowledge "Solus 

 quod sciam," 3 who lived to see the new doctrine which he had 

 promulgated victorious over opposition, and established in 

 public opinion. Harvey's views, then, were admitted ; the 

 circulation of the blood, through the action of the heart, was 

 received as an established fact ; but envy and detraction now 

 began their miserable work. The fact was so; but it was none of 

 Harvey's discovering ; the fact was so, but it was of no great 

 moment in itself, and the merit of arriving at it was small ; 

 the way had been amply prepared for such a conclusion. 



Let us look as impartially as we may at each of these state- 

 ments. 



They who deny the originality of Harvey's induction, very 

 commonly confound the idea of a Motion of the blood, with 

 the idea of a Continuous Motion in a Circle. It would seem 



1 Gassendi, ' DC Septo Cordis pervio,' published in a collection by Severinus Pinseus, 

 12mo, Leid. 1640. 



2 D. de Marchettis, Anatomia, 8vo, Padova, 1652. 



3 Elementa Philosophise in Praefat. 



