William Harvey Case Study
Ideas Before Harvey
Galen said that
Other doctors questioned e.g Vesalius but nobody could explain how blood moved around the body
New blood was constantly manufactured in the liver to replace blood burned up in the body
The veins carried blood & air around the body
Blood passed from one side of the heart to the other through invisible holes in the septum
Who Was Harvey
Harvey was born in 1578 and died in 1657
He studied medicine in Cambridge and Padua in Italy and worked as a doctor in London. He became doctor to King Charles I
What did he discover
That blood circulates around the body in one direction (one way system for blood) through veins
How did he make his discovery
By dissecting live cold-blooded animals whose hearts beat slowly so he could see the movement of each muscle
Dissecting to build up detailed knowledge of the heart
Not from textbooks
Calculated that the amount of blood going into the arteries was three times the weight of a man.
Improvements
He discovered Galen was wrong about both blood and air circulating around the body
The same blood is pumped around the body, not burned off as Galen