Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 425.5

WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657) Guilielmi Harvei, Angli, Medici Regii, & anatomici Londinensis celeberrimi, De motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus anatomica exercitatio : cui postrema hac editione accesserunt cl. v. Iohannis VValaei ... epistolae duae, quibus Harveii doctrina roboratur. Apud Cadorinum. 1689 1689 Padua edition. [24], 175, [5] p. (the last leaf blank). 16 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 416

[Uniform title: De motu cordis or De motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus anatomica exercitatio] This 72 page book contains the matured account of the circulation of the blood. Opening with a simple but clear dedication to King Charles I, the quarto has 17 chapters which give a perfectly clear and connected account of the action of the heart and the consequent movement of the blood around the body in a circuit. Having only a mere lens at his disposal, Harvey was not able to reach the adequate images that were attained through such microscopes used by Leeuwenhoek; thus he had to resort to theory – and not practical evidence – in certain parts of his book. After the first chapter, which simply outlines past ideas and accepted rules regarding the heart and lungs, Harvey moves on to a fundamental premise to his treatise, stating that it was extremely important to study the heart when it was active in order to truly comprehend its true movement.

Cited references: Osler 689; Waller 4096; Choulant-Frank p.226

John Martin M.D. Endowment