136 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



of medical training and gained the background necessary to solve 

 the important question of the circulation of the blood. 



Harvey was the son of a prosperous yeoman. He matricu- 

 lated as a student at Caius College, in 1593, at the age of sixteen, 

 and was given a six-year scholarship, the first ever presented for 

 medical study. During his tenure, Thomas Grimston, anatomist, 

 conducted two annual human dissections permitted by law, which 

 Harvey attended. He undoubtedly took full advantage of his fi- 

 nanical support; he graduated with a degree in Arts in 1597. 



After leaving Cambridge, Harvey went to Padua where he 

 studied under the supervision of Fabricius ab Aquapendente and 

 Casserius for four years. It was here that he became interested 

 in the circulation of the blood largely because Fabricius was 

 completing his anatomical observations on the venous valves, 

 which he had discovered, but was unaware of their true func- 

 tional significance. On returning to London, Harvey taught anat- 

 omy for some years at the College of Physicians and the Barber- 

 Surgeon's Hall. He is known to have held a public dissection 

 every winter. During this time, he continued his investigations 

 on the circulation of the blood and made many examinations of 

 vivisected animals. In 1615, he announced his radical views con- 

 cerning the vascular circulation and in 1628 they were pub- 

 lished in book form in Frankfurt with the title, Exercitatio 

 Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. It was 

 seventy-two pages long. The treatise gives a very clear account 

 of the research performed (Herringham, '32). 



His experiments included studies on about forty different 

 species of animals and led to the following conclusions: 



1. The heart contracts actively and dilates passively. 



2. Atria contract first and then the ventricles. 



3. Blood is forced into the ventricles by means of contraction 

 of the atria. 



4. The atria have no pulsing power, the apparent pulsations 

 being due to the blood inside them. 



5. The heart is the organ which propels the blood. 



