William Harvey - The Heart

Circulation of the blood was first discovered by William Harvey. He was fascinated by how the blood moved around people’s bodies. In those days people thought that food was changed into blood by the process of the liver and then was consumed as fuel in the body.

 Galen the Greco-Roman physician put a theory forward that blood was moved from the heart to all the different parts of the body, where then it was used up. Harvey wasn’t too sure of this and begun to suspect that, that was not what happens, and that the blood does not get used up.

From dissecting many creatures, including humans, English physician William Harvey discovered the nature of blood circulation and the function of the heart as a pump. Before his discoveries blood was thought to ebb and flow through the body by the contraction of arteries. Harvey's work also laid down the foundations of physiology, the study of body functions. William Harvey was positive that this was not true as he had seen lots of humans and animals dissections and he thought that that was not possible. He had dissected some executed criminals and when looking at these he had found out that blood was pumped through the body from the heart and then redistributed back around the body which later on he published a book about.

Even though many people thought this was a ground-breaking discovery many did not and lots of these were his patients so William lost lots of patients. Despite this he still kept at it and later on produced another book about animals. Now he was well known and was now recognised as a ‘Medical Leader’ and was appointed doctor for King Charles I.

William Harvey's discovery was very good. He would not have made the discovery without his great determination. Even when the odds were against him he still had hope and eventually got there in the end. Without his discovery we wouldn't know a lot of things about the heart and circulation of the blood as all the following people followed up on his research and discovered new things about it; Malpighi -- Saw capillaries in the lungs, S. Hales -- Measured blood pressure, Landsteiner -- Blood groups worked out and Perutz who discovered haemoglobin.