Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 416

WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657) Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus. Sumptibus Guilielmi Fitzeri 1628 72 pp., [2] plates. 19.3 cm.

There is probably no name better known in the history of medicine than that of William Harvey. An Englishman, educated at Cambridge and then at Padua when Fabricius was in the chair of anatomy, Harvey returned to London and set up in practice. In 1615 he was made professor of anatomy and surgery at the College of Physicians. By 1616 he was well on his way toward perfecting his theory of the circulation of the blood, publishing his findings in this unimposing little book, "An anatomical disquisition concerning the motion of the heart and blood," usually called just De motu cordis. Many authorities consider it to be the most important book in the history of medicine. What Vesalius was to anatomy, Harvey was to physiology; the whole scientific outlook on the human body was transformed, and behind almost every important medical advance in modern times lies the work of Harvey. Because of its importance in the development of medicine and the book's inability to stand the ravages of time, the first edition of this book has become one of the greatest rarities and today only seventy known copies remain. De motu cordis was printed on inferior paper and often poorly bound, which hastened the deterioration of the book.

Cited references: Cushing H147; Garrison-Morton 759; Keynes 1 (a); Osler 692; Russell 350; Waller 4088; Wellcome 3069

Gift of John Martin, M.D.