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
In the beginning of 1651 appeared the second of Harvey’s great works,
that, namely, On Animal Generation.[24] In this publication we have
abundant proof of our author’s unabated industry and devotion to
physiological science; and in the long and admirable letter to P. M.
Slegel, of Hamburg, written shortly after the appearance of the work, we
have pleasing evidence of the integrity of Harvey’s faculties at the
advanced age of seventy-three.
The year after the publication of the work on Generation, i. e. 1652,
when Harvey was looked up to by common consent as the most distinguished
anatomist and physician of his age, the College of Physicians came to
the resolution of placing his statue in their hall then occupying a site
at Amen-corner; and measures being immediately taken in conformity with
this purpose, it was carried into effect by the end of the year, when
the statue, with the following complimentary inscription on the
pedestal, was displayed:
GULIELMO HARVEIO
Viro monumentis suis immortali
Hoc insuper Collegium Medicorum Londinense
posuit.
Qui enim Sanguini motum
ut et
Animalibus ortum dedit,
Meruit esse
Stator Perpetuus.[25]
Harvey, in acknowledgment, it may have been, of the distinguished honour
done him by his friends and colleagues, appears about this time to have
commenced the erection at his own cost of a handsome addition to the
College of Physicians. It was, as Aubrey informs us, “a noble building
of Roman architecture (of rustic work, with Corinthian pilasters),
comprising a great parlour, a kind of convocation house for the fellows
to meet in below, and a library above. On the outside, on the frieze, in
letters three inches long, was this inscription: Suasu et cura Fran.
Prujeani, Præsidis, et Edmundi Smith, elect. inchoata et perfecta est
hæc fabrica, An. MDCLIII.”[26] Nor was Harvey content merely to erect
this building; he, further, furnished the library with books, and the
museum with numerous objects of curiosity and a variety of surgical
instruments. On the ceremony of this handsome addition to the College of
Physicians being opened, which took place on the 2d of February, 1653, a
sumptuous entertainment was provided at Harvey’s expense, at which he
received the president and fellows, and made over to them, on the spot,
his whole interest in the structure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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