Augustine Pamplany CST
William Harvey (1578-1657) was an English physician who was considered as one of the founding fathers of modern medicine. His contribution consisted in that he was the first to recognize the full blood circulation in the human body. Harvey was a contemporary of renowned scientists and thinkers like Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes, Francis Bacon, and Boyle. He was also a fellow student of Galileo in the Padua University. He also served as the personal physician of Francis Bacon.
Though born of a farmer, he managed to attend the King’s School in Canterbury. He studied medicine at the University of Padua which was the leading European medical school then. Having obtained his doctorate in medicine from Padua, he returned to England. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
Harvey’s most important work is Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, published in 1628. In this he presented his findings that in human body, the blood flows rapidly all around and it is pumped through a single system of arteries and veins. Although it is layman’s knowledge today, his discoveries understood in their context has been really legendary.
The scientific mindset of Harvey helped prove the innocence of many alleged witchcrafts at that time when witch-hunt was notoriously popular. In a culture when belief in witches was commonplace Harvey is said to have treated the cases with an open mind. He was able to give scientific explanations for many evidences which proved one to be a witch.
Harvey was an ardent believer in God and he saw the marvels of God in the workings of the human body. In his famous work mentioned above, Harvey wrote, “We acknowledge God, the Supreme and Omnipotent Creator, to be present in the production of all animals, and to point, as it were, with a finger to His existence in His works. All things are indeed contrived and ordered with singular providence, divine wisdom, and most admirable and incomprehensible skill. And to none can these attributes be referred save to the Almighty.”
He also wrote as to how his scientific knowledge led him to the recognition of a Creator: “The examination of the bodies of animals has always been my delight, and I have thought that we might thence not only obtain an insight into the lighter mysteries of nature, but there perceive a kind of image or reflection of the omnipotent Creator Himself.”
McMullen, a scholar in Harvey’s works, stated that “Harvey concluded after demonstrating the circulatory system, that ‘life therefore resides in the blood,’” which is an insight of the Sacred Scriptures as well. Harvey is also said to have quoted specific passages from Leviticus when he discussed the issues of the origin of life. After conducting rigorous studies on the functioning of heart, he said, “The heart, is the household divinity which, discharging its function, nourishes, cherishes, quickens the whole body, and is indeed the foundation of life, the source of all action.”
