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William Harvey

English physician who first fully described blood circulation.

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William Harvey was an English physician who first described the complete systemic and pulmonary circulation of blood.[1] William Harvey was born in Folkestone, Kent, on either 1 or 2 April 1578, and his death occurred on 3 June 1657.[1][2] Harvey's conclusion about blood moving in a circuit came from logical reasoning rather than direct observation, and he anticipated that this idea would face disbelief and hostility.[3][4]

Key facts and history

At Padua, his examiners judged that he far surpassed their great hopes in skill, memory, and learning.[5][2] He married Elizabeth Browne, daughter of a physician, in November 1604, and they had no children.[6][2] Harvey was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 5 June 1607 and became Physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1609.[5] He was appointed Lumleian lecturer on 4 August 1615 and began his lectures in April 1616.[7][8]

His treatise on blood circulation, De Motu Cordis, was published in Frankfurt in 1628.[5][9] During the English Civil War, a mob stole his goods and scattered his papers containing records of dissections.[10] After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Caius in 1597, Harvey subsequently enrolled at the University of Padua in 1599.[11] The remains of William Harvey were interred at St. Andrew's Church in Hempstead, Essex, during June 1657.[5]

What the research sources say

The RCP Museum notes that Harvey was named Treasurer of the College in 1628 and resigned in 1629 to travel with the Duke of Lenox.[2] The same introduction notes that Harvey was present at the Battle of Edgehill and was incorporated Doctor of Medicine at Oxford in 1642.[9][2] According to the RCP Museum, Harvey was the firstborn son of Thomas Harvey and entered the world on either 1 or 2 April 1578.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: French, "William Harvey"; "Companion to the History of Modern Science", Routledge, 1996, p. 217–242; "There's a reasonable basis to assume that it was Dr. Amatus who first discovered the "Blood circulation" phenomena"; Wilson and Aubrey, "Malter Warner", Aubrey's Brief Lives, 1962, p. 315 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "William Harvey RCP Museum", history.rcplondon.ac.uk. facts only, no text reused. history.rcplondon.ac.uk
  3. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beveridge, "The art of scientific investigation", W. W. Norton, 1950 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barber, "The Sociology of Science", New York: Free Press, 1962, p. 555; Beveridge, "The art of scientific investigation", W. W. Norton, 1950 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Power 1897, p. 4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Power 1897, p. 4; "William Harvey Biography, Education, Experiments, Discoveries, & Facts Britannica", www.britannica.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Silverman, "De Motu Cordis: the Lumleian Lecture of 1616: an imagined playlet concerning the discovery of the circulation of the blood by William Harvey.", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2007, p. 199–204; Davis, "Shakespeare's medical knowledge: how did he acquire it?", The Oxfordian, Annual, 2000, p. 45 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "A Harvey Anniversary", JAMA, 12 April 2016, p. 1524; Wright, "William Harvey: A Life in Circulation", Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 118; Power 1897, p. 4; Willis, "Modern History Sourcebook: William Harvey (1578–1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628", Fordham University (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Willis, "Modern History Sourcebook: William Harvey (1578–1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628", Fordham University. facts only, no text reused. sourcebooks.fordham.edu
  10. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Power 1897, p. 4; Stewart, "Harvey and the Battle of Edgehill", Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1946, p. 405 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "William Harvey" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article William Harvey (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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