Anatomist With An Inquiring Mind

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 5

Anatomist With An Inquiring Mind

(Specially written for "The Press") discoveries have been as dynamr ically important to the world of medicine as William Harvey’s determination of the true function of the heart and the substantiation of his original theories on the circulation of the blood.

When Harvey made his authoritative pronouncement to the College of Physicians in London in 1616 the chief theory was that the heart was the great centre for the production of heat, that the blood was driven alternately to and from the heart being sucked in to it during the diastole (dilation) and driven from it during the systole (contraction), and that the use of the arteries was to fan and cool the blood, as the lungs fanned and cooled the heart.

The pulse, so it was claimed, was due to an active dilation and contraction of the arteries during that dilation the arteries sucked in air with contraction they discharged murky vapours through the pores in the flesh and skin.

In his celebrated “Anatomical Treatise on the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals,” published in 1628, Harvey gave his mature account of the circulation of blood to the world.

Met Objections

For more than nine years he had been demonstrating the subject before the auditory at the College of Physicians, illuminating it by new and additional arguments and freeing it from the objections raised by the more skilful among anatomists. Careful observation and handling of the heart—and Harvey stated that the heart must be examined while alive —an arduous and difficult task in those days—made it clear to him that the organ was muscular.

He said that during contraction the ventricles of the heart became smaller and so expelled their charge of blood through the arteries, the pulsation of the arteries depended directly upon the contraction of the left ventricle, whilst the right ventricle propelled its discharge of blood into the pulmonary artery.

Having settled the broad points in connexion with the vascular system, he turned his attention more particularly to the mechanism of the heart’s action, that the two auricles moved simultaneously and that the two ventricles contracted at the same time. Hitherto it had been supposed that each cavity of the heart moved independently.

Three Points

Harvey then continued to deal, in a logical manner, with the various difficulties in following the course taken by the blood in passing from the vena cava to the arteries, or from the right side to the left side of the heart. The movement of the blood he called “circular,” and using as illustrations his many studies on a great variety of animals he was able to confirm his first main point that the blood circulated.

His second point, that the blood under the influence of the arterial pulse, entered and was impelled in a continuous, equable and incessant stream through every part and member of the body, and in a quantity much larger than was sufficient for nutrition: or than the whole mass of fluids could supply; and third —that the veins returned the blood incessantly to the heart—he demonstrated in a masterly fashion.

Gaps In Research

But, he was hampered by the conditions of the age in which he lived, his hand lens was not sufficiently powerful to show. him the capillary blood vessels, and he had no real knowledge of the way by which the blood passed from the arterioles to the venules. So it was for Malpighi in 1661 with the use of his microscope to disclose the true nature of the porosities by which blood passed from the terminal arteries to the commencing veins. William Harvey was born in Folkstone on April 1, 1578,

the eldest son of Thomas Harvey, an aiderman of Folkstone, Kent, and Joan, his second wife. They had five other sons and two daughters. The second son was a footman to James I and later filled other offices of importance, the other four were turkey merchants and, all probably members of the Grocers’ Company.

Years At Padua

When he was 10 Harvey was sent to the Grammar School of Canterbury. During his holidays at home, he probably watched the constant movement of troops to Spain and Portugal, the main activity of the Cinque ports during the close of Elizabeth’s reign, and perhaps he spent many hours collecting, observing, comparing and dissecting the small animals, or fish along the shore line; for already the habits of minute observation, logic, that a fondness of anatomy would be showing the bias of his mind.

At 16 he entered, as a pensioner or ordinary student, Caius College, Cambridge, and graduated as bachelor of arts in 1597. His education in all probability consisting of a sound knowledge of Greek, Latin, and some learning in dialectics and physics. He then began his more professional studies at the University of Padua which was particularly renowned for its anatomical school which had been made famous by Versalius, the first and greatest of modern anatomists, and by the work of his successor, Fabricius. Fabricius became more than a teacher to Harvey, and a fast friendship developed between master and pupil. Fabricius was engaged, while Harvey was at Padua, in perfecting his knowledge of the valves of the veins. He must have demonstrated his observations to his class, and much of Harvey’s work appears to be a continuation and amplification of that of his master.

Harvey graduated as doctor of medicine at Padua in 1602, and the terms in which his diploma was couched leaves no doubt that his ability had made a deep impression upon his teachers. Armed with this splendid testimonial he returned to England, obtained a doctorate of medicine from Cambridge the same year, and settled in London attached to the College of Physicians. The college admitted him as a candidate two years later, and three years later he was elected a fellow. He married a few weeks after his admission to the College of Physicians. He and his wife were childless.

Physician To Poor

Little is known of Harvey’s work in his first few years in London. Probably many, many hours were spent in making an intimate acquaintance with the anatomy of animals—his lectures indicate a knowledge of more than 60— besides furthering his knowledge of the structure of the human body, and, in particular, making his skilful observations on the heart and blood vessels.

He was appointed to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, as physician to the poor. One day a week he was required to sit at the table in the hall of the hospital where the patients were brought to him. Here he would write in a large book his prescriptions for their ailments. He visited the wards to see only those patients who could not walk. In 1615, Harvey was appointed Lumleian lecturer, a lectureship at the College of Physicians founded by Lord Lumley in 1581. The design of this noble benefaction was the institution of a lecture on surgery to be continued for the common benefit of London and, conse-

quently, of all England. The lecturer was appointed for life, and his subjects were so arranged that they recurred in cycles. The lectures were to be given twice a week and at the end of the year, in the winter, the body of a man was to be dissected “for five days if the bodies may last so long without annoy.” So year by year Harvey delivered the Lumleian lectures at the College of Physicians, attended the poor at St. Bartholomew’s, and treated his own patients. In 1629, he was commanded by the King to accompany the Duke of Lennox to the Continent. This was the first interval in his professional life since his return from Padua.

Royal Appointment

On his return he was appointed physician to Charles I, and besides being physician to the Royal household he seems to have held a similar position to many nobles and men of eminence. But this life unsettled him.

His duties at court interfered with his work at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and a deputy for him was appointed there. He became the friend of Charles I and accompanied him everywhere.

Warden At Oxford

When the Civil War broke out Harvey accompanied the king in his campaign, but after the battle of Edgehill in 1642 he settled at Oxford where he received his last payment from St. Bartholomew’s and this is the last mention of him in the hospital’s records. In 1645 he was warden of Merton College, Oxford, but after the battle of Naseby the next year and the departure of the king to his wearisome captivity, Harvey resigned the wardensbip.

When Oxford surrendered to Parliament, Harvey, then 68, a martyr to gout, childless and suffering under a series of heavy bereavements, his wife and two brothers had little heart to re-enter active professional life in London,

but he continued with the study of natural things, still taking delight in the examination of the bodies of animals, for now he was completing his second treatise “Exercises on the Generation of Animals," a work composed with vast labour and singular care. This was published in 1651. From then till he died Harvey’s chief object was the welfare and improvement of College of Physicians. He had built a library and museum, the name of the benefactor is not known, but before the work was completed the college testified their regard for Harvey by voting the erection of his statue. In 1654 he was elected president, but declined office on the grounds of age and infirmity.

Death At 79

On June 3, 1657, worn down by repeated attacks of gout, he died, probably from a cerebral hemorrhage, and was buried in a vault at Hampstead, Essex, which his brother Eliab had built.

“In person Harvey was not

tall” says Aubrey, one of those who bore his coffin to the vault, “but of lowest stature, round-faced, olivaster complexion, little eye—round, very black, full of spirit—his hair black as raven, but quite white twenty years before he died.”

“This Great Man”

“The private character o< this great man” says Aitken in his biographical memoirs in 1780, “appears to have been in every respect worthy of public reputation. Cheerful, candid and upright, he was not the prey of any mean or ungentle passion. He was as little disposed by nature to detract from the merits of others, or make an ostentatious display of his own, as necessitated to use such methods for advancing his fame.... He was used to say that he never dissected the body of any animal without discovering something which he had not expected or conceived of, and in which he recognised the hand of an allwise Creator."