438 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



veins ; but Fabricius remarked that they are all 

 turned towards the heart. Combining this disposi- 

 tion with that of the valves of the heart, and with 

 the absence of valves in the arteries, he might have 

 come to the conclusion 13 that the blood moves in a 

 different direction in the arteries and in the veins, 

 and might thus have discovered the circulation : 

 but this glory was reserved for William Harvey : so 

 true is it, observes Cuvier, that we are often on 

 the brink of a discovery without suspecting that 

 we are so ; so true is it, we may add, that a cer- 

 tain succession of time and of persons is generally 

 necessary to familiarize men with one thought, 

 before they can advance to that which is the next 

 in order. 



Sect. 2. The Discovery of the Circulation made 

 by Harvey. 



WILLIAM HARVEY was born in 1578 at Folkestone 

 in Kent 14 . He first studied at Cambridge : he after- 

 wards went to Padua, where the celebrity of Fabri- 

 cius of Acquapendente attracted from all parts 

 those who wished to be instructed in anatomy and 

 physiology. In this city, excited by the discovery 

 of the valves of the veins, which his master had 

 recently made, and reflecting on the direction of 

 the valves which are at the entrance of the veins 

 into the heart, and at the exit of the arteries from 

 13 Cuv.p.45. M p. 61. 



