THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD* 



I DESIRE this evening to give you some account of the life 

 and the labours of a very noble Englishman William 

 Harvey. 



William Harvey was born in the year 1578, and, as he 

 lived until the year 1657, he very nearly attained the age 

 of 80. He was the son of a small landowner in Kent, who 

 was sufficiently wealthy to send this, his eldest son, to the 

 University of Cambridge ; while he embarked the others 

 in mercantile pursuits, in which they all, as time passed on, 

 attained riches. 



William Harvey, after pursuing his education at Cam- 

 bridge, and taking his degree there, thought it was advisable 

 and justly thought so, in the then state of University 

 education to proceed to Italy, which at that time was 

 one of the great centres of intellectual activity in Europe, 

 as all friends of freedom hope it will become again, sooner 

 or later. In those days the University of Padua had a 

 great renown ; and Harvey went there and studied under 

 a man who was then very famous Fabricius of Aqua- 

 pendente. On his return to England, Harvey became a 

 member of the College of Physicians in London, and entered 

 into practice ; and, I suppose, as an indispensable step 

 thereto, proceeded to marry. He very soon became one 

 of the most eminent members of the profession in London ; 

 and, about the year 1616, he was elected by the College of 

 Physicians their Professor of Anatomy. It was while 

 Harvey held this office that he made public that great 

 discovery of the circulation of the blood and the movements 

 of the heart, the nature of which I shall endeavour by-and- 

 by to explain to you at length. Shortly afterwards, Charles 

 the First having succeeded to the throne in 1625, Harvey 

 became one of the king's physicians ; and it is much to 

 the credit of the unfortunate monarch who, whatever his 



* A Lecture delivered in the Free Trade Hall, November 2nd. 

 1878. 



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