Harvey was proud of his new doctrine about the forceful systole and pulse and argued in the lectures that it corrected an ancient mistake. He continued with his experiments while giving the first few lectures, as his modifications in his notes show. His new doctrine was a radical departure from the accepted professional Galenism of the college and not all the members accepted it. Harvey represented himself as conducting an academic disputation on the topic, with the president of the college, John Argent, acting as the presiding master. Harvey strove to convince his audience by emphasizing the force of blood emerging from the heart, and his emendations to his notes for the lectures show that he now chose a stronger verb for the spurting of the blood from the punctured artery. Harvey showed for the first time that the arteries and veins circulate blood through the whole body. He showed that the heart’s beat produces a constant circulation of blood through the whole body. He refuted many of the then standard beliefs of how the heart and blood system worked, establishing that: Would you be the man who should recommend me to quit the peaceful haven where I now pass my life and launch again upon the faithless sea? You know full well what a storm my former lucubrations raised. Much better is it oftentimes to grow wise at home and in private, than by publishing what you have amassed with infinite labour, to stir up tempests that may rob you of peace and quiet for the rest of your days." [32]

The next important phase of Harvey's life began with his appointment to the office of Lumleian lecturer on 4 August 1615. [13] The Lumleian lectureship, founded by Lord Lumley and Dr. Richard Caldwell in 1582, consisted in giving lectures for a period of seven years, with the purpose of "spreading light" and increasing the general knowledge of anatomy throughout England. [14] I must admit that my interest in William Harvey stems in part from the fact that he was a scholar of classics. He was fluent in Greek and Latin. He studied classical literature and was a passionate reader of Greek and Roman authors. Both of his books, De Motu Cordis and De Generatione Animalium, were written in Latin. I love classics. I remember that the principal of my middle school used to say that the best engineers and scientists come from humanistic schools that emphasize classical subjects. He was absolutely right, because classical studies teach one how to think and how to express oneself. If you are unable to book via this portal please call 01227 206739 between the hours of 8:30 - 4:30 Monday - Friday. Please note this number is only to book blood test appointments if you are unable to use the above link. Harvey, William (1993). The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings. Translated by Franklin, Kenneth J. London: Everyman: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 0-460-87362-8. Galen seemed to hold a monopoly of knowledge on the blood system until the investigative work of Harvey.Power, D'Arcy (1897). William Harvey: Masters of Medicine. T. Fisher Unwin. ISBN 978-1-4179-6578-6. To us, free thinkers of the 21st century, it is astounding that these extravagant ideas were not challenged for one-and-a-half millennia. It would have been easy to test them experimentally, but no one dreamed of doing that for 1500 years—a great demonstration of the power of the principle of authority, which was the mindset that dominated the Middle Ages. Harvey was seen as a "...humorous but extremely precise man...", [63] and that he was often so immersed in his own thoughts that he would often suffer from insomnia (cured with a simple walk through the house), and how he was always ready for an open and direct conversation. He also loved the darkness, for it is said that it was there where "...he could best contemplate", thus sometimes hiding out in caves. A heavy drinker of coffee, Harvey would walk out combing his hair every morning full of energy and enthusiastic spirit through the fields. We have also come to understand Harvey's somewhat unorthodox method of dealing with his gout, here cited completely: "...his [Harvey's] cure was thus: he would sit with his legs bare...put them into a pail of water till he was almost dead with cold, then betake himself to his stove, and so 'twas gone". [64] Images [ edit ]

Contrary to a popular misconception, Harvey did not predict the existence of capillaries. His observations convinced him that direct connection between veins and arteries are unnecessary; he wrote "blood permeates the pores" in the flesh and it is "absorbed and imbibed from every part" by the veins. [41] In 1628 he published in Frankfurt his completed treatise on the circulation of the blood, the De Motu Cordis. As a result of negative comments by other physicians Harvey "fell mightily in his practice", [22] but continued advancing his career. He was re-elected 'Censor' of the College of Physicians in 1629, having been elected for the first time in 1613 and the second time in 1625. Eventually, Harvey was also elected Treasurer of the College. [23] Witchcraft trials [ edit ]But the arguments about Harvey's doctrines were not simply between those who could see the truth and those who could not. The main argument against Harvey was that circulation had no medical use. This argument was used at two levels. First, medical philosophers like Caspar Hofmann asserted that circulation had no purpose, no Aristotelian final cause: it was therefore incapable of proper demonstration in a philosophical sense. Hofmann concluded that Harvey was not a philosopher, but a mere accountant, totting up quantities (of blood leaving the heart); philosophers, with Aristotle, thought that mathematics could not uncover essences. At the second level educated medical practitioners, like Harvey's countryman James Primrose and the French anatomist Jean Riolan, found that a Galenic understanding of how the body worked served them fairly well in practice. If the blood circulated the basis of practice would be destroyed as the humours of the body would be mixed together and could not be changed or evacuated separately, and there would be no basis for the letting of blood. Blood tests are now by appointment only for all patients. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer a walk-in service. In fact, even 200 years after Harvey’s death, Galen’s bloodletting was still being used, probably shortening the life of Ada Lovelace. There were still some Aristotelian philosophers who would have agreed with him, but the new natural philosophers believed in a particulate, mechanical world quite devoid of local purposeful action (they did not deny that God had originally made purposeful action in it). In such a world there could be no final cause and no demonstrative knowledge. It was now often argued that medicine was an art, not a science, thus swinging the pendulum to one side of a debate that had been initiated with the successful search for the new Aristotle of the late twelfth century and the new Galen of the late thirteenth. Intellectual systems, like that of Aristotle, came under suspicion because rationality was uncorrected by observation. Sensory observation gave conviction but the knowledge it provided was only probable, that is, that which could not be built up into a rational system. Willis, Robert. "Modern History Sourcebook: William Harvey (1578–1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628". Fordham University.

A SECOND DISQUISITION TO JOHN RIOLAN; IN WHICH MANY OBJECTIONS TO THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD ARE REFUTED Harvey was an English physician who was the first to describe accurately how blood was pumped around the body by the heart.conducted himself so wonderfully well in the examination and had shown such skill, memory and learning that he had far surpassed even the great hopes which his examiners had formed of him." [8] The College of Physicians, marriage and Saint Bartholomew's Hospital [ edit ] The Harvey Society, found in 1905, is based in New York City and hosts an annual lecture series on recent advances in biomedical sciences. [59] The main lecture theatre of the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge is named after William Harvey, who was an alumnus of the institute. [60] William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry is a research facility focussing on biochemical pharmacology, orthopaedic diseases, endocrinology, genomics, clinical pharmacology and translational medicine and therapeutics. [61] William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent is named after him. Harvey's hometown of Folkestone, Kent also has a statue of him. [62] Personality [ edit ] Fabricius had discovered valves in human veins in 1574, although he did not publish his discovery until 1603.

In addition to his hospital duties and private practice, Harvey was highly involved in teaching and research. In August 1615, he was appointed Lumleian Lecturer, a post that allowed him to teach anatomy at the College of Physicians. This position helped initiate his research on circulation of the blood. Most of his evidence came from the observations made during his dissection and vivisection of various animals. His close relationship with Charles I served him well as the king supported his research, even providing deer from his royal parks for Harvey’s investigations. In 1628 he published his work on the circulatory system under the title Independently of Ibn Al-Nafis, Michael Servetus identified pulmonary circulation, but this discovery did not reach the public because it was written down for the first time in the Manuscript of Paris in 1546. [48] It was later published in the theological work which caused his execution in 1553, almost all copies of which were destroyed. In: Christianismi Restitutio, Book V, the Aragonese Miguel Servet (Michel de Villeneuve, 1509?–1553) wrote: 'The blood is passed through the pulmonary artery to the pulmonary vein for a lengthy pass through the lungs, during which it becomes red, and gets rid of the sooty fumes by the act of exhalation'. [49] Ideas on circulation of blood were also proposed by the Spanish veterinarian-farrier Francisco de la Reyna in 1546. [50] [51] [52] Harvey’s knowledge came from observations he made of blood flowing through the veins and arteries of living animals that he cut open. Through modern eyes, his living dissections look cruel, and there were no anesthetics in Harvey’s time. Nevertheless, it is how we arrived at an understanding of blood and its circulation in the body.If you require a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) fasting blood test then please call 01303 854484 Monday - Friday between 10.30am and 12 midday to make an appointment. On arriving in the department take a seat and your name will be called. Opening times - Monday - Friday 8.00am to 3.45pm (Please note - opening and closing times may vary on occasion)