| William Harvey | |
 William Harvey
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| Born | April 1, 1578 Folkestone |
|---|---|
| Died | June 3, 1657 |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields | physician |
| Known for | systemic circulation |
William Harvey (April 1, 1578 – June 3, 1657) was an English physician who is credited with being the first in the Western world to describe correctly and in exact detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Folkestone (ˈfoʊkstən is a resort town on the south coast of Kent, England, traditionally known as "The Garden Coast" Events 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A physician, medical practitioner or medical doctor who practices Medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human Health Systemic circulation is the portion of the Cardiovascular system which carries Oxygenated Blood away from the heart to the Body, and returns Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Events 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A physician, medical practitioner or medical doctor who practices Medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human Health Systemic circulation is the portion of the Cardiovascular system which carries Oxygenated Blood away from the heart to the Body, and returns Blood is a specialized Bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells such as nutrients and oxygen—and transports Waste products The heart is a muscular organ in all Vertebrates responsible for pumping Blood through the Blood vessels by repeated rhythmic
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Early life and education
Harvey was born in his house (the nearest hospital to Folkestone (in Ashford) is named after him) to a prosperous yeoman, Thomas Harvey, of Folkestone, Kent (1578 – 3 June 1657), Turkey Company merchant, and wife Joan Halke, of Hastingleigh Kent (1555-1556 – 8 November 1605), and educated at The King's School, Canterbury, at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1597, and at the University of Padua (also attended by Copernicus), where he studied under Hieronymus Fabricius, and the Aristotelian philosopher Cesare Cremonini graduating in 1602. Yeoman is noun used to indicate a variety of positions or Social classes In the 16th century a yeoman was also a Farmer of middling social status who owned Folkestone (ˈfoʊkstən is a resort town on the south coast of Kent, England, traditionally known as "The Garden Coast" KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format Events 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering In English trading history the Levant Company, or Turkey Company, was a Chartered company formed in 1581 after London merchants petitioned Queen Merchants function as professionals who deal with Trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves in order to produce Profit. The small Civil parish of Hastingleigh lies on top of the North Downs in Kent three miles east of Wye and ten miles south of Canterbury KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format Events 1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great a Celebration The King's School is an English Independent school situated in Canterbury, Kent. Gonville and Caius College Cambridge is a constituent College of Cambridge University, one of the world's most academically respected institutions The University of Padua ( Italian Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) located in Padua, Italy, was founded in 1222 Hieronymus Fabricius is the Latin name by which the Italian Anatomist Girolamo Fabrici ( May 20 1537 &ndash May 21 Cesare Cremonini, sometimes Cesare Cremonino ( 22 December 1550 - 19 July 1631) was an Italian professor of Natural He returned to England and married Elizabeth. C. Browne, daughter of Lancelot Browne, a prominent London physician. The couple had no children. He became a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London (1609–43) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Royal College of Physicians of London was the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter After his time at St Bartholomew's he returned to Oxford and became Warden (head of house) of Merton College. See also Wardens of Merton College Oxford. Merton College is also the name of a college in the London Borough of Merton. In 1651 William Harvey donated money to the college for building and furnishing a library, which was dedicated in 1654. In 1656 he gave an endowment to pay a librarian and to present a yearly oration, which continues to happen in the present day in his honor. Harvey also left money in his will for the founding of a boys' school in his native town of Folkestone; opened in 1674, the Harvey Grammar School has had a continuous history to the present day. Folkestone (ˈfoʊkstən is a resort town on the south coast of Kent, England, traditionally known as "The Garden Coast"
Circulation of the blood
Although Ibn al-Nafis and Michael Servetus had described pulmonary circulation before the time of Harvey, all but three copies of Servetus' manuscript Christianismi Restitutio were destroyed and as a result, the secrets of circulation were lost until Harvey rediscovered them nearly a century later. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi ( Michael Servetus (also Miguel Servet or Miguel Serveto; 29 September, 1511 &ndash 27 October, 1553) was a Spanish Pulmonary circulation is the portion of the Cardiovascular system which carries Oxygen -depleted Blood away from the heart to the Lungs, and Harvey travelled widely in the course of his researches, especially to Italy, where he stayed at the Venerable English College in Rome. The Venerable English College is a Roman Catholic Seminary in Rome for the training of priests for England.
Hieronymus Fabricius, Harvey's teacher at Padua, had claimed discovery of "valves" in veins, but had not discovered the true use of them. Hieronymus Fabricius is the Latin name by which the Italian Anatomist Girolamo Fabrici ( May 20 1537 &ndash May 21 The explanation that he had put forward did not satisfy Harvey, and thus it became Harvey's endeavour to explain the true use of these valves, and eventually, the search suggested to him the larger question of the explanation of the motion of blood. Harvey announced his discovery of the circulatory system in 1616 and in 1628 published his work Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals), where, based on scientific methodology, he argued for the idea that blood was pumped around the body by the heart before returning to the heart and being re-circulated in a closed system. Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus, (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Living Beings is the best-known work of the physician
This clashed with the accepted model going back to Galen, who identified venous (dark red) and arterial (brighter and thinner) blood, each with distinct and separate functions. Galen ( Greek: Γαληνός Galēnos; Latin: Claudius Galenus, Aelius Galenus, Claudius Aelius Galenus, or Venous blood was thought to originate in the liver and arterial blood in the heart; the blood flowed from those organs to all parts of the body where it was consumed. The liver is a vital organ in the human body and is present in Vertebrates and some other animals It was for exactly these reasons that the work of Ibn al-Nafis had been ignored in Europe. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi (
Harvey based most of his conclusions on careful observations recorded during vivisections made of various animals during controlled experiments, being the first person to study biology quantitatively. He did an experiment to see how much blood would pass through the heart each day. In this experiment he used estimates of the capacity of the heart, how much blood is expelled each pump of the heart, and the amount of times the heart beats in a half an hour. All of these estimates were purposefully low, so that people could see the vast amount of blood Galen's theory required the liver to produce. He estimated that the capacity of the heart was 1. 5 ounces, and that every time the heart pumps, 1/8 of that blood is expelled. This led to Harvey's estimate that about 1/6 of an ounce of blood went through the heart every time it pumped. The next estimate he used was that the heart beats 1000 times every half an hour, which gave 10 pounds 6 ounces of blood in a half an hour, and when this number was multiplied by 48 half hours in a day he realized that the liver would have to produce 540 pounds of blood in a day. At this time, common thought was that the blood was recycled and not constantly produced.
He proposed that blood flowed through the heart in two separate closed loops. One loop, pulmonary circulation, connected the circulatory system to the lungs. Pulmonary circulation is the portion of the Cardiovascular system which carries Oxygen -depleted Blood away from the heart to the Lungs, and The second loop, systemic circulation, causes blood to flow to the vital organs and body tissue. Systemic circulation is the portion of the Cardiovascular system which carries Oxygenated Blood away from the heart to the Body, and returns He also observed that blood in veins would move readily towards the heart, but veins would not allow flow in the opposite direction. This was observed by another simple experiment. Harvey tied a tight ligature onto the upper arm of a person. This would cut off bloodflow from the arteries and the veins. When this was done, the arm below the ligature was cool and pale, while above the ligature it was warm and swollen. The ligature was loosened slightly, which allowed blood from the arteries to come into the arm, since arteries are deeper in the flesh than the veins. When this was done, the opposite effect was seen in the lower arm. It was now warm and swollen. The veins were also more visible, since now they were full of blood. Harvey then noticed little bumps in the veins, which he realized were the valves of the veins, discovered by his teacher, Hieronymus Fabricius. Hieronymus Fabricius is the Latin name by which the Italian Anatomist Girolamo Fabrici ( May 20 1537 &ndash May 21 Harvey tried to push blood in the vein down the arm, but to no avail. When he tried to push it up the arm, it moved quite easily. The same effect was seen in other veins of the body, except the veins in the neck. Those veins were different from the others - they did not allow blood to flow up, but only down. This led Harvey to believe that the veins allowed blood to flow to the heart, and the valves maintained the one way flow. Harvey further concluded that the heart acted like a pump that forced blood to move throughout the body instead of the prevailing theory of his day that blood flow was caused by a sucking action of the heart and liver. These important theories of Harvey represent two significant contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms of circulation.
Criticism of Harvey's work
Harveys ideas were eventually accepted during his lifetime. His work was attacked, notably by Jean Riolan in Opuscula anatomica (1649) which forced Harvey to defend himself in Exercitatio anatomica de circulations sanguinis (also 1649) where he argued that Riolan's position was contrary to all observational evidence. Jean Riolan (the Younger (1577 &ndash 1657 was a French Anatomist who was an influential member of the Medical Faculty of Paris. Harvey was still regarded as an excellent doctor. He was personal physician to James I (1618-1625). James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James After his and others' attempts to cure James of his fatal illness failed, he became a scapegoat for that failure amidst rumours of a Catholic plot to kill James, but was saved by the personal protection of Charles I (to whom he was also personal physician, from 1625 to 1647). Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. He took advantage of these royal positions by dissecting deer from the royal parks and demonstrating the pumping of the heart on Viscount Montgomery's son, who had fallen from a horse when he was a boy, leaving a gap in his ribs, subsequently covered by a metal plate, which he was able to remove for Harvey. "I immediately saw a vast hole," Harvey wrote, and it was possible to feel and see the heart's beating through the scar tissue at the base of the hole. [1]
His research notes were destroyed in riots in London at start of the English Civil War. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. He himself went with the king on campaign, and was in charge of the royal children's safety at the Battle of Edgehill, hiding them in a hedge with them reading a book, then forced by enemy fire to shelter behind the Royalist lines, and at the end of the battle tending to the dying and wounded. The Battle of Edgehill (or Edge Hill) was the first Pitched battle of the First English Civil War.
Harvey also became the lecturer to the Royal College of Physicians (1615-56). The Royal College of Physicians of London was the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter
Marcello Malpighi later proved that Harvey's ideas on anatomical structure were correct; Harvey had been unable to distinguish the capillary network and so could only theorize on how the transfer of blood from artery to vein occurred. Marcello Malpighi ( March 10, 1628 - September 30, 1694) was an Italian doctor who gave his name to several physiological features Capillaries are the smallest of a body's Blood vessels measuring 5-10 μm in diameter which connect Arterioles and Venules and enable the interchange Arteries are Blood vessels that carry blood away from the Heart. In the Circulatory system, a vein is a Blood vessel that carries Blood back toward the Heart (as opposed to Artery, a blood vessel
Even so, Harvey's work had little effect on general medical practice at the time — blood letting, based on the prevailing Galenic tradition, was a popular practice, and continued to be so even after Harvey's ideas were accepted. Bloodletting (or blood-letting, in modern medicine referred to as phlebotomy) was a tremendously popular medical practice from antiquity up to the late Harvey's work did much to encourage others to investigate the questions raised by his research, and to revive the Muslim tradition of scientific medicine expressed by Nafis, Ibn SinaRhazes. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi ( TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Persian /ابو علی الحسین ابن عبدالله ابن سینا (born (See also: François Bernier)
Later years and afterwards
Harvey died of a stroke in 1657 at the age of seventy-nine. François Bernier (1625&ndash1688 was a French Physician and traveler born at Joué-Etiau / Anjou. He was buried in St Andrews Church, Hempsted, England.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. included William Harvey in a list of "The Ten Most Influential People of the Second Millennium" in the World Almanac & Book of Facts. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr, born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger ( October 15 1917 &ndash February 28 2007) was a Pulitzer Prize recipient The World Almanac and Book of Facts is an American-published Reference work and is the bestselling almanac conveying information about such subjects as world changes
See also
- Amato Lusitano - 16th century physician, also credited with the discovery of the circulation of the blood
- Medical Renaissance - Further reading on discoveries during Harvey's time, for example the discovery of the water-pump and historical context
- De Generatione
References
Further reading
- Butterfield, Herbert (1957). João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, better known as Amato Lusitano and Amatus Lusitanus (1511&ndash1568 was a notable Portuguese Jewish The term Medical Renaissance is often applied to the period from around 1400 to 1750, of major progress in medical knowledge and a renewed interest in the ancient William Harvey ( April 1, 1578 – June 3, 1657) was an English Physician who is credited with being the first in The Origins of Modern Science, (revised edition), New York: The Free Press.
- Gregory, Andrew (2001). Harvey's Heart, The Discovery of Blood Circulation. Cambridge, England: Icon Books.
- Harvey, William (1889). On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. London: George Bell and Sons.
- Kearney, Hugh (1971). Science and Change 1500 - 1700. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Rapson, Helen (1982). The Circulation of the Blood. London: Frederick Muller.
- Singer, Charles (1959). A History of Biology, (third edition, revised), London: Abelard-Schuman.
External links
- {{cite book | author = Mitchell, Silas Weir | title = Some Memoranda in Regard to William Harvey, M. D. | year = 1907 |
- William Harvey info from the (US) National Health Museum
- The life and work of William Harvey @ Ward's Book of Days
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