TABLE OF CONTENTS.
| | PAGE |
| [Preface] | [v] |
| [Life of William Harvey] | [xv] |
| [Last Will and Testament of William Harvey] | [lxxxv] |
| AN ANATOMICAL DISQUISITION ON THE MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD IN ANIMALS. |
|---|
| [Dedication] | [3] |
| [Introduction] | [9] |
| CHAPTER |
| [I.] | [ The author’s motives for writing] | [19] |
| [II.] | [ Of the Motions of the Heart, as seen in the Dissection of Living Animals] | [21] |
| [III.] | [ Of the Motions of Arteries, as seen in the Dissection of Living Animals] | [24] |
| [IV.] | [ Of the Motion of the Heart and its Auricles, as seen in the Bodies of Living Animals] | [26] |
| [V.] | [ Of the Motion, Action, and Office of the Heart] | [31] |
| [VI.] | [ Of the Course by which the Blood is carried from the Vena Cava into the Arteries, or from the Right into the Left Ventricle of the Heart] | [35] |
| [VII.] | [ The Blood percolates the Substance of the Lungs from the Right Ventricle of the Heart into the Pulmonary Veins and Left Ventricle] | [40] |
| [VIII.] | [ Of the Quantity of Blood passing through the Heart from the Veins to the Arteries; and of the Circular Motion of the Blood] | [45] |
| [IX.] | [ That there is a Circulation of the Blood is confirmed from the first proposition] | [48] |
| [X.] | [ The First Position: of the Quantity of Blood passing from the Veins to the Arteries. And that there is a Circuit of the Blood, freed from objections, and farther confirmed by Experiment] | [52] |
| [XI.] | [ The Second Position is demonstrated] | [54] |
| [XII.] | [ That there is a Circulation of the Blood is shown from the Second Position demonstrated] | [60] |
| [XIII.] | [ The Third Position is confirmed: and the Circulation of the Blood is demonstrated from it] | [62] |
| [XIV.] | [ Conclusion of the Demonstration of the Circulation] | [68] |
| [XV.] | [ The Circulation of the Blood is further confirmed by probable reasons] | [ib.] |
| [XVI.] | [ The Circulation of the Blood is further proved from certain consequences] | [71] |
| [XVII.] | [ The Motion and Circulation of the Blood are confirmed from the particulars apparent in the Structure of the Heart, and from those things which Dissection unfolds] | [75] |
| [THE FIRST ANATOMICAL DISQUISITION ON THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD, ADDRESSED TO JOHN RIOLAN] | [89] |
|---|
| [A SECOND DISQUISITION TO JOHN RIOLAN; IN WHICH MANY OBJECTIONS TO THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD ARE REFUTED] | [109] |
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| ANATOMICAL EXERCISES ON THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS; TO WHICH ARE ADDED, ESSAYS ON PARTURITION; ON THE MEMBRANES, AND FLUIDS OF THE UTERUS; AND ON CONCEPTION. |
|---|
| | PAGE |
| [Dedication] | [145] |
| [Introduction] | [151] |
| [ Of the manner and order of acquiring knowledge] | [154] |
| [ Of the same matters, according to Aristotle] | [158] |
| [ Of the method to be pursued in studying Generation] | [163] |
| ON ANIMAL GENERATION. |
|---|
| [Wherefore we begin with the history of the hen’s egg] | [169] |
| [Of the seat of generation] | [171] |
| [Of the upper part of the hen’s uterus, or the ovary] | [172] |
| [Of the infundibulum] | [179] |
| [Of the external portion of the uterus of the common fowl] | [180] |
| [Of the uterus of the fowl] | [190] |
| [Of the abdomen of the common fowl and of other birds] | [195] |
| [Of the situation and structure of the remaining parts of the fowl’s uterus] | [198] |
| [Of the extrusion of the egg, or parturition of the fowl, in general] | [201] |
| [Of the increase and nutrition of the egg] | [202] |
| [Of the covering or shell of the egg] | [204] |
| [Of the remaining parts of the egg] | [211] |
| [Of the diversities of eggs] | [216] |
| [Of the production of the chick from the egg of the hen] | [225] |
| [The first examination of the egg; or of the effect of the first day’s incubation upon the egg] | [228] |
| [Second inspection of the egg] | [232] |
| [The third inspection of the egg] | [234] |
| [The fourth inspection of the egg] | [243] |
| [The fifth inspection of the egg] | [252] |
| [The sixth inspection] | [256] |
| [The inspection after the tenth day] | [257] |
| [The inspection after the fourteenth day] | [259] |
| [Of the exclusion of the chick, or the birth from the egg] | [264] |
| [Of twin-bearing eggs] | [268] |
| [Certain deductions from the preceding history of the egg] | [270] |
| [Of the nature of the egg] | [ib.] |
| [The egg is not the product of the uterus, but of the vital principle] | [279] |
| [The egg is not produced without the hen] | [284] |
| [Of the manner, according to Aristotle, in which a perfect and fruitful egg is produced by the male and female fowl] | [287] |
| [Of the uses of this disquisition on fecundity] | [291] |
| [The egg is not produced by the cock and hen in the way Aristotle would have it] | [293] |
| [Nor in the manner imagined by physicians] | [294] |
| [The male and the female are alike efficient in the business of generation] | [296] |
| [Of the matter of the egg, in opposition to the Aristotelians and the medical writers] | [297] |
| [In how far is the fowl efficient in the generation of the egg, according to Aristotle? And wherefore is the concurrence of the male required?] | [300] |
| [The perfect hen’s egg is of two colours] | [303] |
| [Of the manner in which the egg is increased by the albumen] | [305] |
| [Of what the cock and hen severally contribute to the production of the egg] | [307] |
| [Of the cock and the particulars most remarkable in his constitution] | [309] |
| [Of the hen] | [313] |
| [Of the sense in which the hen may be called the “prime efficient:” and of her parturition] | [318] |
| [Of the manner in which the generation of the chick takes place from the egg] | [323] |
| [In how many ways the chick may be said to be formed from the egg] | [325] |
| [Fabricius is mistaken with regard to the matter of the generation of the chick in ovo] | [327] |
| [What is the material of the chick, and how it is formed in the egg] | [333] |
| [Of the efficient cause of the generation of the chick and fœtus] | [340] |
| [Of the manner in which the efficient cause of the chick acts, according to Aristotle] | [344] |
| [The opinion of Fabricius on the efficient cause of the chick is refuted] | [350] |
| [The inquiry into the efficient cause of the chick is one of great difficulty] | [355] |
| [Of the efficient cause of animals, and its conditions] | [360] |
| [Of the order of generation; and, first, of the primary genital particle] | [372] |
| [Of the blood as prime element in the body] | [379] |
| [Of the inferences deducible from the course of the umbilical vessel in the egg] | [392] |
| [Of the order of the parts in generation from an egg, according to Fabricius] | [397] |
| [Of the order of the parts according to Aristotle] | [407] |
| [Of the order of the parts in generation as it appears from observation] | [414] |
| [Of certain paradoxes and problems to be considered in connexion with this subject] | [423] |
| [Of the nutrition of the chick in ovo] | [434] |
| [Of the uses of the entire egg] | [442] |
| [Of the uses of the yelk and albumen] | [444] |
| [Of the uses of the other parts of the egg] | [454] |
| [An egg is the common origin of all animals] | [456] |
| [Of the generation of viviparous animals] | [461] |
| [The generation of viviparous animals in general is illustrated from the history of that of the hind and doe, and the reason of this selection] | [466] |
| [Of the uterus of the hind and doe] | [467] |
| [Of the intercourse of the hind and doe] | [474] |
| [Of the constitution or change that takes place in the uterus of the deer in the course of the month of September] | [476] |
| [Of what takes place in the month of October] | [478] |
| [Of what takes place in the uterus of the doe during the month of November] | [482] |
| [Of the conception of the deer in the course of the month of December] | [492] |
| [Of the innate heat] | [501] |
| [Of the primigenial moisture] | [513] |
| [ON PARTURITION] | [521] |
|---|
| OF THE UTERINE MEMBRANES AND HUMOURS | [551] |
|---|
| [ Of the Humours] | [557] |
| [ Of the Membranes] | [560] |
| [ Of the Placenta] | [563] |
| [ Of the Acetabula] | [566] |
| [ Of the Umbilical Cord] | [567] |
| [ON CONCEPTION] | [573] |
|---|
| [ANATOMICAL EXAMINATION OF THE BODY OF THOMAS PARR] | [589] |
|---|
| [LETTERS.] |
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| | PAGE |
| [To Caspar Hofmann, M.D.] | [595] |
| [To Paul Marquard Slegel, of Hamburg] | [596] |
| [To the very excellent John Nardi, of Florence] | [603] |
| [In reply to R. Morison, M.D., of Paris] | [604] |
| [To the most excellent and learned John Nardi, of Florence] | [610] |
| [To John Daniel Horst, principal Physician of Hesse-Darmstadt] | [612] |
| [To the distinguished and learned John Dan. Horst, principal Physician at the Court of Hesse-Darmstadt] | [613] |
| [To the very learned John Nardi, of Florence, a man distinguished alike for his virtues, life, and erudition] | [615] |
| [To the distinguished and accomplished John Vlackveld, Physician of Harlem] | [616] |
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM HARVEY, M.D.
William Harvey, the immortal discoverer of the Circulation of the Blood, was the eldest son of Thomas Harvey and Joan Halke, of Folkstone, in Kent, where he was born on the 1st of April, 1578.[3] Of the parents of Harvey, little is known. His father, in our printed accounts, is generally designated Gentleman,[4] and must have been in easy circumstances; inasmuch as he had a numerous family, consisting of seven sons and two daughters, all the males of which he felt himself competent to launch upon life in courses that imply the possession of money wealth. William, the first-born, adopted the profession of physic. Five of his brothers,—Thomas, Daniel, Eliab, Michael, and Matthew—were merchants, and not merchants in a small and niggardly way—non tenues et sordidi, as Dr. Lawrence has it in his Life of Harvey,[5] but of weight and substance—magni et copiosi, trading especially with Turkey or the Levant, then the main channel through which the wealth of the East flowed into Europe. The Harveys were undoubtedly men of consideration in the city of London, and several of them, in the end, became possessed of the most ample independent fortunes.[6] The son, whose name does not appear in the list given above, was John, the immediate junior to William. He, too, was a man of note in his day, having been one of the King’s receivers for Lincolnshire, having sat as member of parliament for Hythe, and for some time held the office of King’s footman. Of the two sisters—Sarah died young; of the fate of Anne, or Amy, nothing is known.
Great men seem, in almost all authenticated instances, to have had noble-minded women for their mothers. We have not a word of his age or generation to assist us in forming an estimate of Harvey’s male progenitor; but the inscription on his mother’s monumental tablet, in Folkstone church, assures us that she, at least, was a woman of such mark and likelihood, that it was held due to her memory to leave her moral portrait to posterity in these beautiful words, penned, it may be, by her illustrious eldest son:
“A.D. 1605, Nov. 8th, dyed in yᵉ 50th yeere of her age,
Joan, Wife of Tho: Harvey. Mother of 7 Sones & 2 Daughters.
A Godly harmles Woman: A chaste loveing Wife:
A charitable quiet Neighbour: A co~fortable frendly Matron:
A p~ovident diligent Huswyfe: A careful te~der-harted Mother.
Deere to her Husband; Reverensed of her Children:
Beloved of her Neighbours: Elected of God.
Whose Soule Rest in Heaven: her Body in this Grave:
To Her a Happy Advantage: to Hers an Unhappy Loss.”
Epitaphs may not always be authorities implicitly to be relied on; but we unhesitatingly accept of everything to the credit of William Harvey’s mother as a portion of our faith.
At ten years of age, Harvey was put to the grammar school of Canterbury, having, doubtless, already imbibed the rudiments of his English education at home under the eye of his excellent mother. In the grammar school of Canterbury he was, of course, initiated into a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages—the routine practice then as now; and there he seems to have remained until he was about fifteen years of age. At sixteen he was removed to Caius-Gonvil College, Cambridge,[7] where he spent from three to four years in the study of classics, dialectics, and physics, such discipline being held peculiarly calculated to fit the mind of the future physician for entering on the study of the difficult science of medicine. At nineteen (1597) he took his degree of B.A. and quitted the University. Cambridge, in Harvey’s time, was a school of logic and divinity rather than of physic. Then, even as at the present day, the student of physic obtained the principal part of his medical education from another than his alma mater. In the 16th and 17th centuries, France and Italy boasted medical schools of higher repute than any in Europe; and to one or other of these must the young Englishman who dedicated himself to physic repair, in order to furnish himself with the lore that was indispensable in his profession. Harvey chose Italy; and Padua, about the year 1598, numbering such men as Fabricius of Aquapendente, Julius Casserius, and Jo. Thomas Minadous among its professors, Harvey’s preference of that school was well founded. There, then, it was, under these and other able masters, that our Harvey drank in the elementary knowledge which served him as a foundation for that induction which has made his name immortal; for without detracting from the glory of Harvey, but merely in recognizing the means to an end, we may admit that, but for the lessons of his master, Fabricius, Harvey might have passed through life, not unnoticed, indeed,—for such as Harvey was in himself, he must still have been remarkable,—but his name unconnected with one of the most admirable and useful inferences ever given to the world.