Dr !letup, professor at Louvaine, was another adversary ; but, finding that the experiments with which he intended to assail the doctrines of Harvey contributed powerfully to their support, he with manly candour ranked himself among his converts.
Harvey, in his first publication, did not acknowledge any regular continuation or anastomosis betwixt the small ar teries and the veins, furnishing a tubular passage for the transmission of the blood, but believed that this fluid was first diffused by the terminations of the arteries among the interstices in the texture of the different organs, and was from these absorbed by the veins ; and it was not without apparent reluctance that he was afterwards induced in this particular to admit the doctrine which is now universally established.
After the great discovery of Harvey was placed beyond the reach of controversy, attempts here made to detract from his merit, by showing that it was not original. Ob scure passages and accidental expressions in the writings of ancient and modern authors were distorted by miserable envy, for the purpose of proving that Harvey, now acquit ted of heresy, was chargeable with plagiarism. A singular circumstance occurred to give a temporary triumph to ca lumny. Harvey, having maintained some degree of inti macy with the Venetian ambassador at the court of London, who had heard and admired his lectures, gave him a phy siological manuscript just before his departure, which the ambassador presented to Paulus Sarpius, a learned monk of his own country. After the death of this religious per son, when his manuscripts were explored, a story was cir culated, that the discovery of the circulation belonged to Paulus, who had communicated it either to Pabricius, or to Harvey. This unfavourable impression was easily credit ed, and a considerable time was required before it could be effaced.
Harvey, however, was not one of those ill-fated men of genius, who are denied all due honour till the enjoyment of it is put out of their power by death. He was caressed at court, and warmly esteemed by his scientific brethren. By what means, or at what period he was introduced to royal notice, we are not informed : but a letter from James 1. of England was found among his papers, dated 1623, i. e. 15 years after he had connected himself with the London Col lege, from which it appears that he had been for some time extraordinary physician to the king, and had been actively employed about the royal person. Seven years after this, in the reign of Charles 1. he was promoted to the office of physician in ordinary. He was also employed to accompa ny the young Duke of Lennox in his continental travels.
During the civil wars, Harvey accompanied the king in his different military movements ; and, after the battle of Edgehill, retired with the royal family to Oxford. In three years after this, he was appointed warden of Merton col lege, instead of Nathaniel Brent, who had revolted to the Presbyterian cause.
The circulation of the blood was not the only subject in which Harvey was eminent. He also made important dis coveries on the subject of generation ; and, at the age of 73, at the pressing request of Sir George Ent, published his work, entitled Exercitationes de Gencratione Animaium, which contained many experiments on incubation, and the reproductive functions of viviparous animals, ingeniously contrived, and executed with much labour. One or his
favourite conclusions was, that impregnation is not accom plished by the contact of the semen of the male with the embryo in the body of the female, but by a pecular stimulus communicated by it to the vagina, and by sympathy to the other female organs, and which he compared to contagion for the peculiarity of its effects ;—a conclusion which he considered as supported by this fact, that a single impregna tion of a female fowl was sufficient to impart a prolific quality to ova not yet formed.
Harvey dissected the body of Thomas Parr, so celebrated for longevity, having lived to the age of 153, and his ac count of the appearances which he found is delivered in his own words in the editions of hii works.
Several letters written by him to men of science are also preserved and published, all of which breathe the same chaste philosophical spirit ; and the latest of them show that he retained, in extreme old age, the same admirable viva city of intellect for which he was distinguished through life. His Anatomia Universals, and some other writings not intended for publication,. are preserved in manuscript in the British musuorn. Some of his manuscripts, how ever, and most particularly those containing his extended views and experiments on generation, were, to the great detriment of science, destroyed by the licentiousness of the Parliamentary troops, when they occupied his house in Lon don.
When Charles I. fled from Oxford, 1-larvey went to Lon don, where he practised but little as a physician, spending a great part of his time in a rural retreat at Lambeth.
Having now attained to the summit of professional emi nence, he received, in 1652, a splendid testimony of the es teem entertained for him by the College of Physicians. A bust of him was executed by their orders, and placed in their hall, accompanied by a complimentary inscription.
lie, in his turn, gave a proof of his affection for that learned body, by presenting them with a hall, and his excellent li brary.
In two years after, when 1)r Prujean resigned the situa tion of president of the college, was chosen his suc cessor ; but, on account of his age and infirmities, he deli cately declined that honourable charge. He continued till a very late period of his life to officiate as a lecturer. He attended the meetings of the college when important busi ness was agitated ; and, in the year 1656, he bequeathed to them his patrimonial property. Loaded with various in creasing infirmities, he died on the 3d of June of the follow ing year, aged 79, and was buried at Hampstead, where a monument, with a figure and suitable epitaph, is erected to his memory.
The College of Physicians, in 1766, published a beautiful edition of his works in one large quarto volume, to which is prefixed an account or his life by Dr Lawrence. Har vey wrote with great perspicuity, and a flowing eloquence. His works are not in the slightest degree tainted with a spirit of hostility. His controversial antagonists, even those who wrote with petulance and asperity, are treated by him in temperate and civil language. His candour, cheerful ness, and goodness of heart, were conspicuous in his whole lire, as well as in his writings, and exhibit a worthy pattern for future imitation. (H. D.)