William Harvey was born
in Folkestone in 1578. After studying medicine at Caius
College, Cambridge, he went to work
at Padua.
In 1602 Harvey returned
to London and began work as a doctor at
St. Bartholomew's Hospital and in 1615 he was appointed Lumleian Lecturer
at the College of Physicians.
Harvey became court physician
to James I in 1618. Ten years later Harvey
published On the Motion of the Heart and
the Blood in Animals. In the book Harvey explained that
after examining the heart and blood vessels of mammals he believed
that the blood in the veins must flow only towards the heart. He also
calculated the amount of blood that left the heart at each beat.
In 1640 Harvey became court
physician to Charles
II and was with
the king during the Civil War and saw
action at Edgehill.
During the Civil
War Harvey continued his medical research and in 1651 published
Essays on Generation in Animals.
In the book he argued that every human being has its origin in an
egg.
William Harvey died in
1657.
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