The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the authorHarvey, William
Science
The Works of William Harvey M.D.: Translated from the Latin with a life of the author
Harvey, William
Blood -- Circulation -- Early works to 1800; Embryology -- Early works to 1800; Physiology -- Early works to 1800
The empiric under the title of the practical man, in his unsuspecting
ignorance, sets himself up and is admitted as arbiter wherever there is
difficulty: blind himself, he leads the blinded multitude the way he
lists. He who laid the foundation of modern medical science lost his
practice for his pains, and the routineer, with an appropriate salve for
every sore, a pill and potion for each particular ache and ail, would
not give threepence for one of his prescriptions! did not admire his
therapeutique way!! and could not tell what he did aim at!!! Ignorance
and presumption have never hesitated to rend the veil that science and
modesty, all in supplying the means, have still owned their inability to
raise. If Harvey faltered, who of his contemporaries could rightfully
presume to walk secure? And yet did each and all of them, unconscious of
the darkness, tread their twilight paths assuredly; whilst he, the
divinity among them, with his eyes unsealed, felt little certain of his
way. So has it still been with medicine; and the world must make many a
lusty onward stride in knowledge before it can be otherwise.
The first interruption to his ordinary professional pursuits and
avocations which Harvey seems to have suffered through his connexion
with the court, occurred in the beginning of 1630, when he was engaged
“to accompany the young Duke of Lenox in his travels beyond seas.” In
anticipation of a removal from London, apparently, Harvey had already,
in December 1629, resigned his office of treasurer to the College of
Physicians, which he seems to have filled for several years.
Of the course of Harvey’s travels with the Duke of Lenox we have not
been able to gain any information. Their way probably led them to the
Continent, and it may have been on this occasion and in this company
that he visited Venice, as we know from himself that he did in the
course of one of his journeys. Harvey must have been in England again in
1632 and 1633; for in the former year he was formally chosen physician
to Charles, and in the latter we find his absence, “by reason of his
attendance on the king’s majesty,” from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
complained of by the surgeons of that institution, and Dr. Andrews
appointed by the governors as his substitute, but “without prejudice to
him in his yearly fee or in any other respect.”[12] Such considerate
treatment satisfies us of the esteem in which Harvey was held.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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