Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 465.1

JAN VAN BEVERWIJCK (1594-1647) Ioh. Beverovicii de calculo renum & vesicae liber singularis : Cum epistolis et consultationibus magnorum virorum. ex. Off. Elseviriorum 1638 1st edition. 8p. leaf, 305 p., 7 leaves. 13 cm (12 mo).

For more information on this author or work, see number: 465

Alternate author spelling: Beverwyck. The first part of the present book (pp. 1-208) contains Beverwijck’s treatise on calculi in the kidney and bladder. The second part (pp. 209-305) contains letters addressed by Beverwijck to some prominent physicians (including Nunez, Back, Saumaise, and Zacuto) whom he consulted on that subject, along with their replies. Several consilia by Sanctorius, Spiegel, Horst, and others follow. Beverwijck, a relative of Vesalius, was a physician and professor of medicine at Dordrecht. At the end of 1637 he wrote a letter to Harvey in which he expressed his admiration for Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation. At the same time, he sent him a copy of the present book. It is the first medical treatise to contain an endorsement of Harvey’s discovery, a remarkable fact in view of the negative attitude within the academic circles in Holland. The passage in question is found on pages 20-24 and is discussed by Walter Pagel in his William Harvey’s Biological Ideas (1967), who reproduces the title-page of our book and two pages of the passage on Harvey. Interestingly, it escaped the attention of Dr. Ernst Weil in his “The Echo of Harvey’s De Motu Cordis”. Harvie replied to Bevewijck’s letter in April 1638, praising his book.

See Related Record(s): 465 465.2

Cited references: Waller 1012; NLM 17th #1192; Wellcome I #836