William Harvey

William Harvey (1578–1657) was an English physician who demonstrated that the heart drives blood through a continuous circuit in the body, reshaping the study of physiology.

Pulmonary circulation: The route by which blood travels from the heart to the lungs and back to the heart. Harvey treated this circuit as evidence that blood moved through the heart and lungs rather than being consumed.
De Motu Cordis: William Harvey’s 1628 book presenting his account of the heart’s action and blood circulation. This work set out the arguments and experiments behind Harvey’s circulation theory.
Hieronymus Fabricius: An Italian anatomist who described venous valves and taught William Harvey at Padua. Fabricius’s observations of venous valves supplied evidence Harvey reinterpreted.
Experimental physiology: The study of bodily functions through controlled observation and experiment. Harvey’s quantitative reasoning helped establish experiment as a way to investigate physiology.
Quantitative argument for circulation: Harvey’s calculation that the heart pumps more blood than the body could continuously produce or consume. The blood-volume estimate made a closed circuit more plausible than repeated production and absorption.
Cardiac cycle: The sequence of contraction and relaxation through which the heart pumps blood. Harvey used the heart’s repeated contractions to explain blood’s movement.
Andreas Vesalius: A sixteenth-century anatomist whose dissections challenged inherited descriptions of human anatomy. Vesalius’s emphasis on dissection helped shape the anatomical culture Harvey inherited.
Charles I of England: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625 until his execution in 1649. Harvey served as Charles I’s physician and conducted animal dissections with royal support.
Iatrophysics: An early modern approach that explained bodily processes using mechanical principles. Harvey’s pump-and-circuit account encouraged mechanical explanations of bodily function.
Heart ligature experiment: An experiment using a ligature to reveal how blood enters and leaves the heart. Harvey used ligatures to distinguish the roles of veins and arteries in heart function.

Linked from 23 pages