Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 436

WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657) Exercitationes de generatione animalium. Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium 1651 568 [5] pp. 13 cm.

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

After the publication of De motu cordis, Harvey turned his attention to the study of generation. Even if Harvey had not discovered the circulation of the blood, his remarkable work on embryology would have placed him in the front ranks of biological scientists. Without benefit of the compound microscope, his work was necessarily limited; nevertheless, nothing comparable had been done since Aristotle. He disbelieved the previously-held doctrine of "preformation" of the fetus, maintaining instead that it proceeds from the ovum by gradual building up of its parts. Always slow to publicize his findings, Harvey was only after some years persuaded by his friend, Sir George Ent, to put them into print. The first edition was published in London in 1651, followed by three Amsterdam editions of the same year. This Elzevir edition is believed to be the first of the three Amsterdam editions.

Cited references: Cushing H158; Keynes 35; Osler 712; Russell 376; Waller 4119; Welcome III, p. 220

Gift of John Martin, M.D.