hand in which the notes are written, but it is worth while to see the
original, for here is the first occasion upon which is laid down in
clear and unequivocal words that the blood CIRCULATES. The lecture gave
evidence of a skilled anatomist, well versed in the literature from
Aristotle to Fabricius. In the MS. of the thorax, or, as he calls it,
the "parlour" lecture, there are about a hundred references to some
twenty authors. The remarkable thing is that although those lectures
were repeated year by year, we have no evidence that they made any
impression upon Harvey's contemporaries, so far, at least, as to excite
discussions that led to publication. It was not until twelve years
later, 1628, that Harvey published in Frankfurt a small quarto volume
of seventy-four pages,(27) "De Motu Cordis." In comparison with the
sumptuous "Fabrica" of Vesalius this is a trifling booklet; but if not
its equal in bulk or typographical beauty (it is in fact very poorly
printed), it is its counterpart in physiology, and did for that science
what Vesalius had done for anatomy, though not in the same way. The
experimental spirit was abroad in the land, and as a student at Padua,
Harvey must have had many opportunities of learning the technique of
vivisection; but no one before his day had attempted an elaborate piece
of experimental work deliberately planned to solve a problem relating to
the most important single function of the body. Herein lies the special
merit of his work, from every page of which there breathes the modern
spirit. To him, as to Vesalius before him, the current views of the
movements of the blood were unsatisfactory, more particularly the
movements of the heart and arteries, which were regarded as an active
expansion by which they were filled with blood, like bellows with air.
The question of the transmission of blood through the thick septum
and the transference of air and blood from the lungs to the heart were
secrets which he was desirous of searching out by means of experiment.

(27) Harvey: Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis
in Animalibus, Francofurti, 1628.

One or two special points in the work may be referred to as illustrating
his method. He undertook first the movements of the heart, a task so
truly arduous and so full of difficulties that he was almost tempted to
think with Fracastorius that "the movement of the heart was only to be
comprehended by God." But after many difficult