William Harvey
By Illa Vij

WILLIAM HARVEY, Physician to Charles I, discovered the circulation of blood. When he put forward his theory, he shattered all medical beliefs held prior to his observations. Earlier, medical discoveries were made more by chance and hardly understood. A certain treatment was advocated because, over a period of time, it was considered effective. Why it was effective, was not clearly understood. Researchers failed to give explanations because the working of the body was not clear to them. Hence, Harvey’s investigations gave a new outlook to medical research.

William Harvey was born in Folkestone on April 1, 1578. His father was a prosperous merchant. William was sent to King’s School, Canterbury. Later, he went to Cambridge University from where he got a degree in arts. Then he went to Padua to study medicine.

His teacher at Padua, Fabricius, had discovered ‘little doors’ or valves in the veins which he felt controlled the intensity of the flow of blood. For fifteen centuries it was believed that blood flowed and ebbed like the tides of the sea. William was not satisfied with this explanation. He felt that the valves were to stop the blood from flowing from the heart and not restrict the flow. After studying at Padua for four years, William graduated as doctor of medicine. He began his practice in London, and continued to study anatomy and physiology. He dissected and observed a variety of animals, pigs, oysters, wasps, serpents etc.

William proved that the blood in the valves moved only towards the heart and blood in arteries flowed from the heart and not towards it. He studied the heart, counted the heart beats, measured the quantity of blood flowing and the rate at which it was pumped at each stroke. He concluded that in half an hour the heart sends out blood equal to the total amount of blood in the body. He also proved that blood was taken round the body by the arteries and brought back to the heart through the veins. He proved the earlier beliefs wrong.

William was appointed lecturer in the RoyalCollege of Physicians. But the value of his discovery remained underestimated. He wrote the book On the Motion of the Blood. It was published in 1628, causing a sensation in the medical circles. Like many other discoverers, he too was rebuked and accused of being crack-brained. But after a few years, the theory was accepted and found to be indisputably true. Harvey dedicated his book to Charles I, who had greatly encouraged and supported him during his research. He said that the monarch was to his kingdom what the heart was to the body.

William worked in St Bartholomew Hospital and was physician to James I and Charles I. He even studied embryology. He experimented with over 60 different species of animals and concluded that man and almost all animals, including those which bring forth their young, are produced from eggs.

At the age of 68 years, he began living a retired life. In 1654, the Royal College of Physicians wished to confer upon him the highest honour in the profession, i.e. the post of President of the college. William declined on account of his old age. Gradually, his health began to fail. On June 3, 1657, he was struck by paralysis and he died. He was buried at Hempstead, Essex. Since William’s wife had died earlier, without bearing a child, William gifted his estate at Burmarsh Kent, to the Royal College of Physicians and also donated a fund for an annual lecture to be delivered at the college.

In 1883, the Fellows of the college had the remains of the great scholar removed to a white sarcophagus in Harvey Chapel, in Hempstead Church. In it, they also placed a copy of his works. William Harvey’s lectures, fondly delivered, urged people "to search out and study the secrets of nature by way of experiment, and also for the honour of the profession, to continue mutual love and affection among themselves".