William Harvey

• William Harvey was born in 1578 and lived until 1657
• Harvey was an English doctor and the personal physician to both James the first and Charles the first
• James the first and Charles the first encouraged Harvey's scientific investigations
• Harvey was trained at Padua University
• Harvey's major breakthrough

  Discovery that the blood circulates within the body
• Harvey demonstrated and proved the circulation of the blood, going against Galen's theory
• Harvey's experiments

  • Dissected animals and carried out experiments to demonstrate the circulation of blood
  • Showed that blood could only flow in One Direction due to valves in the blood vessels
  • Demonstrated that the heart acted like a pump and recirculated the blood around the body
• Harvey published an anatomical account of the motion of the heart and blood in animals


  1628
• Printing allowed Harvey's book to be widely shared
• Harvey demonstrated the valves within the blood vessels showing that blood only traveled in One Direction
• Harvey theorized that blood was recirculated, disproving Galen's theory that blood was used up like a fuel
• Harvey's idea about blood circulation

  Disproved Galen's theory that blood was used up like a fuel
• Harvey's most famous work was the circulation of the blood
• Harvey's education at Padua University
• William Harvey proved Galen's idea that blood was pumped by the heart but used up like a fuel with the liver making more blood was wrong
• Harvey published an answerable account of the motion of the heart and blood in animals to share his idea
• Harvey's education at Padua University and his patronage by two kings of England encouraged his scientific approach
• Harvey used vivisection


  Dissecting living animals, including frogs, to demonstrate blood circulation
• Printing helped Harvey achieve sharing his ideas through his printed book
• The government, King James the First, and King Charles the First encouraged and helped fund Harvey's research
• Harvey was familiar with Vesalius's work and built on it with his own ideas about how the body worked, particularly the blood
• Harvey's importance in the history of medicine lies in his improved understanding of anatomy, the structure of the body, and physiology
• Harvey's ideas about blood and circulation were correct and he proved this
• Harvey's new knowledge about blood circulation led to a decline in the practice of bloodletting
• William Harvey was educated at Padua University and likely influenced by the early work of Andreas Vesalius
• Harvey was the personal doctor of King James the First and King Charles the First, giving him and his ideas considerable influence and credibility
• Harvey's most famous discovery demonstrated that Galen was wrong about the liver producing blood and it being used up like a fuel
• Harvey demonstrated the circulation of the blood by way of the heart and lungs in One Direction
• Harvey's work had little immediate impact on the health and understanding of disease
• Harvey's work would help later developments like blood transfusions
• William Harvey's contributions to medicine include demonstrating the circulation of blood, improving understanding of anatomy and physiology, and influencing the decline of bloodletting as a treatment