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- In 1636 Harvey acted as doctor to a diplomatic mission sent to see the Holy Roman emperor, Ferdinand II. This involved nearly a year of travel around Europe. He met renowned German professor of medicine Casper Hofmann at Nürnberg and attempted to demonstrate the circulation of the blood to him.
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On his return from Italy in 1602, Harvey established himself as a physician. His career was helped by his marriage to Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Elizabeth I's physician, in 1604.
- Overview
- Education and appointment as Lumleian lecturer
- Physician to the king
- Later life
English physician William Harvey was the first to recognize the full circulation of the blood in the human body and to provide experiments and arguments to support this idea.
When was William Harvey born?
English physician William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578, in Folkestone, Kent, England.
Which king was William Harvey appointed physician to?
English physician William Harvey was appointed physician to James I in 1618 and continued as physician to Charles I upon Charles’s accession to the throne in 1625.
William Harvey, (born April 1, 1578, Folkestone, Kent, England—died June 3, 1657, London), English physician who was the first to recognize the full circulation of the blood in the human body and to provide experiments and arguments to support this idea.
Harvey had seven brothers and two sisters, and his father, Thomas Harvey, was a farmer and landowner. Harvey attended the King’s School in Canterbury, Kent, from 1588 to 1593 and went on to study arts and medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 1593 to 1599. He continued his studies at the University of Padua, the leading European medical school at the time. He became a student of Italian anatomist and surgeon Hieronymous Fabricius, who had a considerable influence on Harvey. It is also likely that Harvey was taught by Italian philosopher Cesare Cremonini, a prominent follower of Aristotle.
Harvey earned his doctorate from Padua on April 25, 1602, and then returned to England to work as a doctor. In 1604 he married Elizabeth Browne, the daughter of Launcelot Browne, a London physician, who served as physician to James I, the king of England and Scotland. Harvey and his wife appear to have been happy together, and Harvey referred to her as “my dear deceased loving wife” in his will. However, they did not have any children. Harvey was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London from 1607 and was active in this society for the remainder of his life. In 1615 he was appointed Lumleian lecturer in surgery at the Royal College, a post he held until 1656 (the Lumleian lecture series was named after Lord John Lumley). In 1609 he was appointed physician at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, a post he held until 1643, when the parliamentary authorities in London had him replaced, Harvey being a staunch supporter of the monarchy.
Harvey was appointed physician to James I in 1618 and continued as physician to Charles I upon Charles’s accession to the throne in 1625. Harvey built a considerable practice in this period, tending to many important men, including author and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. In 1625 Harvey led the group of doctors attending James during his last illness and was an important witness in the trial of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, who was accused of poisoning the king. Harvey was rewarded by Charles I for his care of James. Charles and Harvey seem to have enjoyed an amicable relationship, Harvey being allowed to experiment on the royal herd of deer and presenting interesting medical cases to the king.
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Harvey lived during the European witch hunt. He was involved in one of the cases, in 1634, and had to examine four women accused of witchcraft. At a time when belief in witches was commonplace and to deny their existence was heresy, it would have been very easy to interpret any suspicious behaviour or mark on the body as positive evidence of witchcraft. It is much to Harvey’s credit that he treated the case with an open mind and was willing to consider scientific explanations of the evidence allegedly showing witchcraft. The alleged witches were found to be innocent.
In 1636 Harvey acted as doctor to a diplomatic mission sent to see the Holy Roman emperor, Ferdinand II. This involved nearly a year of travel around Europe. He met renowned German professor of medicine Casper Hofmann at Nürnberg and attempted to demonstrate the circulation of the blood to him. Harvey also had a wide interest in philosophy, literature, and art. During the diplomatic mission of 1636 he visited Italy to look for paintings for the royal collection. He was friends with Robert Fludd, an important English physician and philosopher whose primary interest concerned natural magic, and Thomas Hobbes, a famous political philosopher. He was also acquainted with John Aubrey, the 17th-century biographer, who gave an account of Harvey in his manuscript Brief Lives.
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In Harvey’s later life, he suffered from gout, kidney stones, and insomnia. In 1651, following the publication of his final work, Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (Exercises on the Generation of Animals), it is believed that Harvey attempted to take his own life with laudanum (an alcoholic tincture of opium). However, this attempt failed. On June 3, 1657, at the age of 79, he died of a stroke.
One of the worst setbacks Harvey experienced concerned the loss of a great deal of written work when parliamentary troops ransacked his house in Whitehall in 1642. He considered the loss of his book on the generation of insects, which contained the results of a great amount of research, to be the “greatest crucifying” that he had in his life. He also lost notes on patients, postmortem examinations, and animal dissections. Further material was lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666, which engulfed the library that Harvey helped establish at the Royal College of Physicians.
Harvey made a major discovery, but the medical community was resistant to change for 3 key reasons. Blood transfusions to combat blood loss were now attempted, as Harvey's work demonstrated that this was essential. These attempts failed because there was a lack of understanding of blood groups.
- William Harvey was an English doctor who studied medicine at university in Cambridge and Padua. He specialised in physiology , and was physician to...
- He challenged Galen's understanding that blood was made in the liver and that it was used as fuel. Harvey believed blood circulated around the body...
- Harvey demonstrated how the heart was a pump for moving blood around the body. He used valves from a dissected heart to demonstrate that blood coul...
- Harvey's understanding of blood circulation was limited in 2 main ways. ❖ He did not understand why...
- Harvey made a major discovery , but the medical community was resistant to change for 3 key reasons. ❖ Blood transfusio...
- His theory of circulation was the first step towards blood transfusions becoming possible, and therefore saving lives. He was also one of the first...
- There were 4 main factors that helped Harvey's discovery . ❖ As an individual , Harvey was skilled,...
- People reacted to Harvey's discovery in 4 main ways. ❖ Some criticised Harvey and said that he was m...
Jul 4, 2023 · Harvey accompanied the Earl of Arundel on a mission to the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, in 1636, publicly demonstrating his theories at Nuremberg. I love the ‘physician extraordinary’ title incidentally, and feel we should all have such name plates slapped on our doors.
Harvey returned to Italy in October 1636, dining at the English College, Rome, as a guest of the Jesuits there. It is possible he met Galileo in Florence en route. [ 30 ]
In 1630 Charles ordered Harvey to accompany the young duke of Lennox on a grand tour, and while we know that Harvey was in Paris in September, he was back in London in October and December. In February 1632 he was in Spain, and recorded the destructive effects of war that he had seen on his travels.
Key fact. Harvey discovered that the heart acts as a pump, moving blood around the body. The role of technology - the microscope.
