William Harvey

• Anatomy


  The science dealing with the structure of animals and plants
• William Harvey


  • Studied medicine at the University of Cambridge and at a famous medical school in Padua, Italy, during the Renaissance
  • Was interested in anatomy
  • Became a lecturer in anatomy
  • Was a doctor to Charles I
• Galen's ideas


  Blood was made in the liver and then pumped around the body
• Harvey proved Galen's ideas were wrong
• Valves


  Devices that allow movement in one direction
• Harvey proved the veins of the body contained valves
• Harvey's experiments


  1. Dissecting human corpses

  2. Carefully observing the heart

  3. Dissecting cold-blooded animals, such as frogs, because they had a slower heartbeat and this enabled the movement of blood to be observed

  4. Measuring blood flow to show that the same blood is pumped around the body repeatedly by the heart
• Capillaries


  Tiny blood vessels linking arteries to veins
• Marcello Malpighi used one of the first effective microscopes to discover the tiny blood vessels that carry blood from the arteries to the veins
• Microscopes were a key technological development in the Renaissance that transformed medical knowledge
• Harvey discovered that the heart acts as a pump, moving blood around the body
• Harvey was unable to explain how blood moves from the arteries to the veins
• Mechanical water pumps used by firefighters in the 17th century may have given Harvey the idea that blood is pumped around the body by the heart
• Harvey published his discovery in a book called An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in 1628