Dr. William Harvey, then
dwelling not far from the city. I found him, Democritus-like, busy with
the study of natural things, his countenance cheerful, his mind serene,
embracing all within its sphere. I forthwith saluted him, and asked if
all were well with him. 'How can it,' said he, 'whilst the Commonwealth
is full of distractions, and I myself am still in the open sea? And
truly,' he continued, 'did I not find solace in my studies, and a balm
for my spirit in the memory of my observations of former years, I should
feel little desire for longer life. But so it has been, that this life
of obscurity, this vacation from public business, which causes tedium
and disgust to so many, has proved a sovereign remedy to me.'"

Harvey died in June, 1657. Aubrey, his contemporary, says, "On the
morning of his death, about ten o'clock, he went to speake, and found he
had the dead palsey in his tongue; then he sawe what was to become of
him, he knew there was then no hopes of his recovery, so presently sends
for his young nephews to come up to him, to whom he gives one his watch,
to another another remembrance, etc.; made sign to Sambroke his
Apothecary to lett him blood in the tongue, which did little or no good,
and so he ended his dayes.... The palsey did give him an easie
passeport.... He lies buried in a vault at Hempsted in Essex, which his
brother Eliab Harvey built; he is lapt in lead, and on his brest, in
great letters, 'Dr. William Harvey.' I was at his Funerall, and helpt to
carry him into the vault."

The publication of Harvey's views on the movement of the blood excited
great surprise and opposition. The theory of a complete circulation was
at any rate novel, but novelty was far from being a recommendation in
those days. According to Aubrey, the author was thought to be
crackbrained, and lost much of his practice in consequence. He himself
complains that contumelious epithets were levelled at the doctrine and
its author. It was not until after many years had elapsed, and the facts
had become familiar, that men were struck with the simplicity of the
theory, and tried to prove that the idea was not new after all, and that
it was to be found in Hippocrates, or in Galen, or in Servetus, or in
Caesalpinus--anywhere, in fact, except where alone it existed, namely, in
the work, "De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis." No one seems to have denied,
while Harvey lived, that he was the discoverer of the circulation of the
blood; indeed, H