Note 7 — Chapter II · WILLIAM HARVEY AND THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.

Harvey’s personal history is comparatively little concerned with the controversy which arose in establishing the truth of his discovery. His lectures and demonstrations at the College of Physicians were so convincing that he met with but slight opposition from capable critics in England. Continental professors, however, were slower to accept his teaching. “The Circulation of the Blood,” he says in his first answer to Riolan in 1649, “has now been before the world for many years, illustrated by proofs cognizable to the senses, and confirmed by numerous experiments; but no one has yet attempted opposition to it on the ground of ocular testimony. Empty assertions, baseless arguments, captious cavillings, and contumelious epithets are all that have been levelled against the doctrine and its author.” We need not, therefore, follow here the history of the final and full triumph of Harvey’s views on the Continent.