WILLIAM HARVEY AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD

by Thomas H. Huxley




THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD*

[*footnote] A Lecture delivered in the Free Trade Hall, November 2nd,
1878.

I DESIRE this evening to give you some account of the life and labours
of a very noble Englishman--William Harvey.

William Harvey was born in the year 1578, and as he lived until the year
1657, he very nearly attained the age of 80. He was the son of a small
landowner in Kent, who was sufficiently wealthy to send this, his
eldest son, to the University of Cambridge; while he embarked the
others in mercantile pursuits, in which they all, as time passed on,
attained riches.

William Harvey, after pursuing his education at Cambridge, and taking
his degree there, thought it was advisable--and justly thought so, in
the then state of University education--to proceed to Italy, which at
that time was one of the great centres of intellectual activity in
Europe, as all friends of freedom hope it will become again, sooner or
later. In those days the University of Padua had a great renown; and
Harvey went there and studied under a man who was then very
famous--Fabricius of Aquapendente. On his return to England, Harvey