Harvey, William

born April 1, 1578, Folkestone, Kent, Eng.

died June 3, 1657, London

English physician.

He studied at Cambridge University and later at the University of Padua, then considered the best medical school in Europe. After receiving a medical diploma, he was appointed to St. Bartholemew's Hospital (1609). He became one of James I's physicians с 1618 and continued as a king's physician for Charles I, whose personal friend he became. Harvey's elucidation of blood circulation overturned the work of Galen and advanced that of Andreas Vesalius and Hieronymus Fabricius. To reach his conclusions, Harvey depended on his own observations and reasoning, numerous animal dissections, autopsies, and clinical observations. His Anatomical Exercise Concerning the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (1628) recorded his findings. It clarified the function of heart valves, proved that blood did not pass through the septum in the heart, explained the purpose of valves in the veins and of the pulmonary circulation, showed that blood is pumped from the atria into the ventricles and then into the rest of the circulatory system, and proved that the pulse reflected heart contractions.

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▪ British physician

Introduction

born April 1, 1578, Folkestone, Kent, Eng.

died June 3, 1657, London

      English physician (medicine, history of) and discoverer of the true nature of the circulation (human cardiovascular system) of the blood and of the function of the heart as a pump. Functional knowledge of the heart and the circulation had remained almost at a standstill ever since the time of the Greco-Roman physician Galen—1,400 years earlier. Harvey's courage, penetrating intelligence, and precise methods were to set the pattern for research in biology and other sciences for succeeding generations, so that he shares with William Gilbert, investigator of the magnet, the credit for initiating accurate experimental research in the early modern period.

      Harvey's father, Thomas Harvey, was a prosperous businessman and a leading citizen of the small town of Folkestone. William, the eldest of nine children, was the only one to achieve special distinction in his career, but all his brothers were successful in business or at the royal court in London and among them amassed considerable wealth.

Career as physician and scientific innovator

      Little is known of Harvey's boyhood in the Kentish countryside. During the years 1588 to 1593 he was at the King's School attached to the cathedral at Canterbury. In his 16th year Harvey entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a scholarship in 1593. Although Harvey attended Caius College because of its special interest in educating doctors, his training was grossly inadequate. He was absent from the university for the greater part of his last year (1598–99) because of illness—probably malaria—but had received the B.A. degree in 1597. Determined to continue with medical training, he began a two-and-a-half-year course of study at the University of Padua (Padua, University of), reputed to have the best medical school in Europe. His teacher was a celebrated anatomist, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente, and it was in the now-famous oval Anatomy Theatre, still to be seen at the university, that Harvey first recognized the problems posed by the function of the beating heart and the properties of the blood passing through it.

      From the time of Aristotle in the 4th century BC it had been widely believed that the blood vessels (blood vessel) contained both blood and air. Galen (Galen Of Pergamum), the Greco-Roman physician, in the 2nd century AD proved that the arteries contained only blood but still believed that air entered the right side of the heart from the lungs. There was a general belief that the movement of the blood was by ebb and flow, an analogy being found in the movement of the sea. Galen's views on this are difficult to assess with exactitude, but it is apparent that he, like everyone else, had no conception of a circular movement of the blood, leaving the heart by one set of vessels, the arteries, and returning to it by another set, the veins. The main propulsive force initiating this oscillatory movement was supposed to be derived from a contracting of the arterial system, rather than by a pumping action of the heart. The blood in the veins was believed to be formed in the liver, passing to the right auricle (i.e., one of the two upper chambers of the heart), and from there to the right ventricle (one of the two lower chambers), to make its way through holes in the septum, or partition, to the left side, where it met with blood from the arteries, which was mixed with air derived from the lungs. This was the extent of man's knowledge about the movement of the blood until 14 centuries later. Early in the 16th century the idea of a pulmonary circulation—that is, a circular motion of blood through heart and lungs—began to occur to some anatomists. In addition, the presence of a perforated septum was beginning to be questioned. In the middle of the 16th century a great anatomist, Andreas Vesalius (Vesalius, Andreas), also working at Padua, first established accurate knowledge of human anatomy but was less interested in function. Several other medical investigators refined the anatomical knowledge of the heart. Realdus Columbus of Cremona, working as assistant to Vesalius, developed the idea of a pulmonary circulation, and this was made more definite by his pupil, Andreas Caesalpinus (Cesalpino, Andrea), though they still thought that the blood was distributed to the body by the great veins and their branches. Fabricius (Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Hieronymus) had a special interest in the anatomy of the veins and first described the system of valves found in them, but he was quite ignorant of their true function. In brief, there existed no convincing explanation of how the heart worked, and Harvey's logical mind remained unsatisfied.

      His 28 months at Padua are only meagrely documented, but it is clear that he was outstanding among the students of his year. After receiving his diploma as doctor of medicine of Padua in April 1602, he returned to England. By the standards of the time he was fully trained in anatomy, the simpler functions of the human body, and in therapeutics based on the writings of Aristotle. He had had some clinical experience in the hospitals of Padua and Venice and was entitled to obtain a fellowship of the College of Physicians in London after passing through the preliminary stage of candidate for the higher qualification. At his first oral examination, in May 1603, he was given limited permission to practice medicine, but only after further examinations in April and August 1604 was he fully licensed to practice within the jurisdiction of the college—that is, in the London area.

      Shortly after his return to England, Harvey married Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Lancelot Browne, physician to King James I and his queen, and a senior fellow of the college. The couple set up house in the parish of St. Martin's by Ludgate, not far from the College of Physicians; and, backed by Browne, Harvey then tried to obtain the appointment of physician to the Tower of London, where a number of distinguished men were imprisoned. Though he failed in this attempt, in 1607 he finally obtained a fellowship of the College of Physicians, which entitled him to seek an appointment as physician to one of the two great hospitals then serving London—St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's. It may have been through his brother John, who had obtained employment in the king's household, that early in 1609 the king gave Harvey a recommendation for an appointment at St. Bartholomew's (Saint Bartholomew's Hospital), which was conveniently near his house in St. Martin's. He was given the post of assistant physician, and, when the physician died in the summer of that year, Harvey succeeded him. The hospital at that time had about 200 beds for patients in 12 wards. Harvey's duties consisted of attending in the hall of the hospital to see the patients and prescribe for their treatment; he worked at least one day a week throughout the year and at any other time when specially needed. The physician was usually expected to live within the hospital precincts, but the rule was waived for Harvey since he lived not far away. He received an annual salary of £25 with £2 extra for his livery and a further £8 since he did not use the official residence. His colleagues were three surgeons and an apothecary in charge of the dispensary.

      Harvey held this office for 34 years, until 1643 when he was displaced for political reasons by Oliver Cromwell's party, then in power in London. These years saw the development and culmination of his active career as physician and scientific innovator. He developed a large private practice, attending many of the most distinguished citizens, including Sir Francis Bacon—and, about 1618, was made physician extraordinary to King James I, thus becoming a colleague of Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, the senior court doctor. There can be no doubt that Harvey was for many years one of the most widely trusted doctors in England, although his unorthodox views on the circulation of the blood did injure his practice after their publication in 1628. Invariably courteous and regarded with affection and respect by his colleagues, he conducted his practice with common sense and honesty. Though advanced in his ideas of anatomy and physiology and scientific in his methods of research, he was inevitably conservative in the use of remedies. Very few potent drugs were known in his time, and accurate diagnosis was, more often than not, impossible, so that he never escaped from the influence of Aristotle, in whose principles he had been trained. He was the great protagonist of experimental biology but did not apply himself to this form of originality in therapeutics.

      At the time of the king's last illness in 1625, de Mayerne was out of the country, and Harvey led the team of doctors in attendance. After the king's death it was rumoured that his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham (Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st Duke of), had contributed to the fatal outcome by applying remedies not approved by the doctors. He was actually accused of having poisoned the king, and an inquiry was ordered by Parliament in 1626. Harvey was the most important witness of several who contributed to exonerating the duke from any direct responsibility. Charles I, the new king, continued Harvey's appointment as his personal physician and gave him a special award for the care he had given the last king. Charles's health remained good until the day of his execution, so that he rarely had need to consult his doctor. Nevertheless, Harvey became his close friend and was always in attendance on his journeys, such as his state visits to Scotland in 1633 and 1638. The king helped Harvey's scientific research by putting the deer in the royal parks at his disposal, and he delighted in showing the king anything of curiosity or scientific interest. At the same time, Harvey took his full share in the affairs of the College of Physicians, being constantly present at the meetings of the fellows and occupying all the official positions in the college hierarchy except that of president. His duties at court would not have allowed him to fill this position during his active years, and when it was offered to him in 1654 he was too old and ill to be able to accept. Yet it is clear from the college records that Harvey was always the man to whom his colleagues turned for advice. The physicians at this time had precedence over the other branches of the profession, and Harvey had a prominent part in maintaining this ascendancy over the surgeons, obstetricians, and apothecaries whenever they became restive under the authority of the college.

      In spite of Harvey's activity in medical practice and college affairs, he spent much time in scientific research from the time of his return to England in 1604 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1642. His interest lay primarily in elucidating the facts of the movement of the heart and its relation to the circulation of the blood. Fabricius at Padua had opened his eyes to the value of comparative anatomy, and he was tireless in dissecting every kind of living thing, from insects, earthworms, reptiles, birds, and mammals up to man himself. He seized every opportunity to increase his knowledge of pathology through postmortem examinations and was an acute clinical observer of his patients, not omitting their psychology. Most of his scientific papers were destroyed by parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War, so that there is now no direct evidence of his methods. On the other hand, his lecture notes used from 1616 onward survive. In 1615 he was appointed to a college lectureship intended to cover all parts of medical knowledge, though each lecturer modified the course to suit his own interests. Harvey's manuscript, now in the British Library, was entitled Lectures on the Whole of Anatomy. It is written in a very bad hand in mixed Latin and English, and it is incomplete, lacking any account of the skeleton, the sense organs, and other systems. The systematic anatomy is enlivened by many references to comparative anatomy, morbid anatomy, and clinical observations, even naming individuals whom he had treated. It is evident that he wrote these notes before he had come to any conclusions about the circulation of the blood, so that they contain nothing that seriously questioned the authority of Galen. The only reference to his novel views is on a leaf inserted some years later, probably after 1628. Harvey held this lectureship until 1656.

Discovery of circulation of the blood

 It is evident from his writings that Harvey revered Aristotle, even though he had to dismiss some of his teachings as absurd. He also valued the views of Galen, his predecessor in experimental physiology, and enlisted his support whenever he could do so. Yet Harvey depended essentially on reasoning from his own observations and experiments for proof of his contentions. During the 12 years after 1616, Harvey may have introduced some novelties into his lectures; but, by his own assertions, he demonstrated the results of his researches to his friends privately at the college. In 1628 he finally published Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise Concerning the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals), a slender volume that established the true nature of the circulation of the blood. With Galen's help, he first disposed finally of the idea that the blood vessels contained air. He then elucidated the function of the valves in the heart in maintaining the flow of blood in one direction only when the ventricles contracted—on the right side to the lungs and on the left to the limbs and viscera. He proved that no blood passed through the septum, separating the two ventricles, and he explained the purpose of the valves in the larger veins in directing the return flow toward the heart. He showed that blood was expelled from the ventricles during contraction, or systole, and flowed into them from the auricles during expansion, or diastole. He proved that the arterial pulse was due to passive filling of the arteries by the systole of the heart and not by active contraction of their walls. He explained the purpose of the pulmonary circulation (human cardiovascular system) from the right ventricle through the lungs and back to the left auricle and ventricle. His only failure was in not demonstrating the connection of the arterial and venous systems in the tissues of the limbs by means of the smallest, or capillary, vessels. These he was unable to see, having no adequate form of microscope at his disposal. He was the first scientist to employ measurement of the content of the chambers of the heart and estimation of the total amount of blood in the body—that is, quantification.

      Harvey's book made him famous throughout Europe, though the overthrow of so many time-hallowed beliefs attracted virulent attacks and much abuse from those who did not wish to believe the plain evidence of their senses. He refused to indulge in controversy and made no reply until 1649, when he published a small book answering the criticisms of a French anatomist, Jean Riolan. In this he reiterated some of his former arguments and utterly demolished Riolan's objections.

      In 1636 King Charles dispatched a diplomatic embassy to the Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II at Regensburg, Germany, in an attempt to establish the claim of his nephew, Prince Charles Louis, as Elector Palatine. Harvey was chosen as doctor to the mission and spent ten adventurous months of travel by land and water through territories ravaged by the Thirty Years' War, extending his journey by visits to Vienna, Prague, Venice, Rome, and Naples. At Nuremberg Harvey had a historical encounter with Caspar Hofmann, professor of medicine at the University of Altdorf, whom he attempted, at a public demonstration, to convince of the truth of his doctrine of the circulation. Though he did not succeed, Harvey behaved with great dignity and good temper in the face of obstinate blindness to demonstration of the facts.

      At the start of the Civil War in 1642, Harvey was with the king and was in charge of the two princes, Charles and James, in the early stages of the Battle of Edgehill. When the king established his headquarters soon afterward at Oxford, Harvey remained with him and was given the position of warden of Merton College in 1645. Here he resumed his work on the development of the chick in hens' eggs and first met John Aubrey (Aubrey, John), antiquary and gossip, who afterward left a revealing account of Harvey in his Brief Lives. When the defeated king fled from Oxford to surrender himself to the Scots, Harvey joined him for a time at Newcastle but was forced to leave the king when he was handed over to the parliamentary army and was not allowed to go to him when he was imprisoned in the Isle of Wight. Harvey had never been much interested in politics but felt a deep personal regard for the king and after his execution in 1649 was a broken and unhappy man.

      Yet two years later he published his second great book. After the publication of De Motu Cordis, the main achievement of Harvey's life, he had continued active research into the difficult subject of reproduction in animals. This led in 1651 to the publication of Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (Anatomical Exercitations Concerning the Generation of Animals) through the persuasions of his younger friend Sir George Ent, a fellow of the college. The book contains much of historical and scientific interest, but Harvey's thought was greatly influenced by Aristotle. The book is mainly concerned with the development (biological development) of the chick in hens' eggs, and Harvey insisted throughout that in all living things the origin of the embryo is to be found in the egg. He investigated also the embryology of deer, rejecting Aristotle's notion that menstrual blood played any part in the formation of the fetus; he also questioned whether or not semen had any influence. Having no microscope, he could not see the spermatozoa, which were not demonstrated until 1686 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek working in Holland with stronger lenses. Harvey remained uncertain of how fecundation (fertilization) of the ovum was accomplished and even suggested that it was by a kind of infection resembling the origin of infectious diseases. Aristotle had originated the theory of gradual formation of the embryo, part by part, as opposed to the idea of preformation, meaning that all the parts arose in miniature at the same time. Harvey agreed with Aristotle and crystallized the belief in the term epigenesis, though to him its meaning was extremely simple compared with all that is implied by it at the present time. Aristotle believed in the principle of spontaneous generation of primitive organisms; it is probable that Harvey did not support this belief, but his statements are equivocal, and his position remains uncertain.

      Harvey's brothers had been successful merchants, and their advice, coupled with his skill as a doctor and his naturally austere habits, enabled him to accumulate considerable wealth. But he had become old and ill. He had met with so much opposition and disbelief that his passionate desire to establish scientific truth was partially unsatisfied. In his last years under Cromwell's Protectorate, he was regarded as a political “delinquent” owing to his long association with King Charles and was forced to spend most of his time lodging in one or another of his brothers' houses outside London. Though he corresponded with many distinguished foreign doctors, he was reluctant to engage in any further scientific research, saw few patients, and took little part in the affairs of the College of Physicians. He showed his regard for the fellows by giving them a new college building in 1652 with a library containing his own collection of books and presumably any remaining manuscripts. This was in use for less than 14 years, being destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, so that very few of his books have survived to the present day. He suffered severe pain from gout and kidney stones and described himself to a correspondent as “not only ripe in years, but also a little weary and entitled to an honourable discharge” from further scientific argument. His last illness was brief. He awoke one morning partially paralyzed and unable to speak, probably owing to a cerebral thrombosis. He died in his 80th year, in 1657, probably in his brother Eliab Harvey's house at Roehampton. He was buried in the family vault at Hempstead, an Essex village 50 miles (80 kilometres) from London. In 1883 he was reburied in a marble sarcophagus in the Harvey Chapel there, near a marble bust by Edward Marshall. This is a lifelike image of Harvey, better, probably, than any of the existing portraits of him in old age.

Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes Ed.

Additional Reading

Sir Geoffrey Keynes, The Life of William Harvey (1966, reissued 1978), is a full and definitive biography based on examination of contemporary sources, documented and illustrated, with eight appendixes; his A Bibliography of the Writings of Dr. William Harvey, 1578–1657, 2nd ed. (1953), is an account of all Harvey's books and of where they may be found; and his The Portraiture of William Harvey (1949) is a catalog of pictures, genuine and spurious, with reproductions. John G. Curtis, Harvey's Views on the Use of the Circulation of the Blood (1915), is an early study of the position of Harvey's work in the history of the knowledge of human physiology. For texts, see Gweneth Whitteridge (ed.), The Anatomical Lectures: Prelectiones Anatomie Universalis, De Musculis (1964), a reliable transcription of Harvey's lecture notes, both in Latin and English, with a full discussion and interpretation, and Whitteridge (trans.), An Anatomical Disputation Concerning the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Living Creatures (1976, trans. from Latin); see also Whitteridge, William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (1970), an important study of the growth of Harvey's ideas. Arthur W. Meyer, An Analysis of the De Generatione Animalium of Harvey (1936), is a discussion of Harvey's second major publication, a work on animal reproduction and development; De Generatione Animalium is also treated in Elizabeth B. Gasking, Investigations into Generation, 1651–1828 (1967). Walter Pagel, William Harvey's Biological Ideas: Selected Aspects and Historical Background (1967), a well-documented historical analysis of Harvey's ideas on physiology and embryology, is continued in his New Light on William Harvey (1976). A good survey of Harvey's works is Kenneth D. Keele, William Harvey: The Man, the Physician, and the Scientist (1965). Later studies include Jerome J. Bylebyl (ed.), William Harvey and His Age: The Professional and Social Context of the Discovery of the Circulation (1979); Robert G. Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists: A Study of Scientific Ideas (1980), an analysis based upon diaries, letters, notebooks, manuscripts, and published scientific works; and Roger French, William Harvey's Natural Philosophy (1994).Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes Ed.

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