92 FATHERS OF BIOLOGY. 



the space above may be streaked upwards till it passes 

 the valve, when that portion of the vein between the 

 valve and the point of pressure will not only be emptied 

 of its contents, but will remain empty as long as the 

 pressure is continued. If the pressure be now removed, 

 the empty part of the vein will fill instantly and look as 

 turgid as before. 



Other confirmatory evidence is then added, e.g. the 

 absorption of animal poisons and of medicines applied 

 externally, the muscular structure of the heart and the 

 necessary working of its valves. 



William Harvey, the illustrious physiologist, anatomist, 

 and physician, to whom this discovery is due, was the 

 eldest k son of a Kentish yeoman, and was born in April, 

 .1578. At the age of ten he entered the Canterbury 

 Grammar School, where he appears to have remained 

 for some years. At sixteen he passed to Caius-Gonvil 

 College, Cambridge, and three years afterwards took his 

 B.A. degree and quitted the university. Like most 

 students of medicine of that day, he found it necessary 

 to seek the principal part of his professional education 

 abroad. He travelled to Italy, selected Padua as his 

 place of study, and there continued to reside for four 

 years, having as one of his teachers the famous Fabricius 

 of Aquapendente. On his return to England, in 1602, 

 he took his doctor's degree at Cambridge, and entered 

 on the practice of his profession. 



