40 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



ture, and, then, the use that the structures subserve. One 

 view is essential to the other, and no investigation of animals 

 and plants is complete in which the two ideas are not in- 

 volved. Just as a knowledge of the construction of a ma- 

 chine is necessary to understand its action, so the anatomical 

 analysis of an organ must precede a knowledge of its office. 

 The term " physiological anatomy of an organ," so commonly 

 used in text-books on physiology, illustrates the point. We 

 can not appreciate the work of such an organ as the liver 

 without a knowledge of the arrangement of its working units. 

 The work of the anatomist concerns the statics of the body, 

 that of the physiologist the dynamics; properly combined, 

 they give a complete picture of the living organism. 



It is to be remembered that the observations of Vesalius 

 were not confined exclusively to structure; he made some 

 experiments and some comments on the use of parts of the 

 body, but his work was mainly structural, while that which 

 distinguishes Harvey's research is inductions founded on 

 experimental observation of the action of living tissues. 



The service of Vesalius and Harvey in opening the path 

 to biological advance is very conspicuous, but they were not 

 the only pioneers ; their work was a part of the general revival 

 of science in which Galileo, Descartes, and others had their 

 part. While the birth of the experimental method was not 

 due to the exertions of Harvey alone, nevertheless it should 

 stand to his credit that he established that method in bio- 

 logical lines. Aristotle and Galen both had employed ex- 

 periments in their researches, and Harvey's step was in the 

 nature of a revival of the method of the old Greeks. 



Harvey's Education. — Harvey was fitted both by native 

 talent and by his training for the part which he played in the 

 intellectual awakening. He was born at Folkestone, on the 

 south coast of England, in 1578, the son of a prosperous 

 yeoman. The Harvey family was well esteemed, and the 



