kiv THE LIFE OF HARVEY. 



he first enters properly on his subject (Chap. 2], is devoted 

 to its consideration. And then, no physiologist up to Harvey's 

 time had questioned the existence of two kinds of blood, one 

 appropriate to each order of vessels, and answering different 

 ends in the economy. 



The only name still wanting in this historical sketch, till 

 we come to Harvey, is that of Fabricius of Aquapendente, his 

 teacher in anatomy. Fabricius had given particular attention, 

 among other subjects, to the anatomy of the valves of the 

 veins, which he entitled ostila venarum. Fabricius, indeed, 

 possessed so thorough a knowledge of the valvular elements of 

 the vascular system, that it is really astonishing, as an able 

 writer 1 has remarked, that he should not have had clearer ideas 

 on the functions, among other things, of the pulmonary veins, 

 and should have continued a rigid adherent to the prejudices 

 which prevailed before his time. Fabricius could observe, and 

 he could describe ; but he wanted the combining intellect that 

 infers, the imagination that leads to new ideas to discovery. 

 Though he did little himself, however, to advance the sum of 

 human knowledge, he proved a tooth in the wheel that lias 

 since put in motion the whole machinery of modern medical 

 science. He it was who sowed the seed, little dreaming of its 

 kind, which, finding one spot of congenial soil, sprung up a 

 harvest that has continued to nurture the world of physiological 

 science to the present hour. 2 



1 Sprengel, Geschichte der Arzneikunde, ii Abschnitt, 4 Kapitel. 



2 I pass by unnoticed in my text several names that bave been very gratuitously 

 associated with the discovery of the circulation, such as that of Father Paul the 

 Venetian, Walter Warner and Mr. Prothero, Honoratus Faber, &c. The claims of 

 Father Paul have been satisfactorily explained by Dr. Ent in his ' Apology,' who has 

 shown that instead of Harvey borrowing from the Monk, the Monk, through the 

 Venetian ambassador to London, who was Harvey's friend, had borrowed from 

 Harvey. The others do not require serious mention. Dr. Freind has given 

 an excellent summary of the entire doctrine of the circulation in his Harveian 

 Oration, to which it is with much pleasure that I refer the reader for other informa- 

 tion. I also pass by the still-recurring denials by obtuse and ill-informed individuals 

 of the truth, or of the sufficiency of the evidence of the truth, of the Harveian cir- 



