WILLIAM HARVEY, 1578-1657. 



TTARVEY as a boy must have led a pleasant life near London 

 -as a son in a well-to-do English family. At the age of fourteen 

 he entered Cambridge University, and five years later went to Italy, 

 where he studied at the University of Padua, under the famous 

 anatomist, Fabricius. From him he learned of the presence of valves 

 in the veins, a fact he made use of later. On his return to England 

 he practiced medicine and taught in the medical school, and soon 

 became one of the most noted physicians in England. He was the 

 court physician under both James I and Charles I. But his name 

 is remembered today for his discovery of the circulation of the 

 blood. Up to this time physicians thought the blood moved in 

 the body but did not know that the heart pumped it through the 

 arteries. Harvey showed, in a book published in 1628, that there 

 was a complete circulation from one side of the heart through the 

 arteries and back through the veins to the other side of the heart. 

 He never proved the existence of the capillaries, although he rea- 

 soned that they must be present. 



We know very little of Harvey as a practitioner. In fact he was, 

 according to some records, not at all popular. We do know he was 

 an active physician and performed important surgical operations. 



