William Harvey (1578–1657) occupies a foundational position in the history of medicine as the physician who transformed physiological inquiry from reliance upon textual authority into a systematic programme of observation, quantification, and experiment. His discovery of the circulation of the blood, first published in Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (1628), overturned the Galenic system that had dominated European medicine for more than a millennium and established a methodological framework that anticipated modern experimental physiology. Harvey’s achievement lay not merely in correcting an anatomical misconception but in redefining the epistemological basis of medicine itself. Through vivisection, comparative anatomy, controlled ligature experiments, and quantitative reasoning, Harvey demonstrated that physiological knowledge must be grounded in reproducible empirical evidence rather than inherited authority. This paper examines Harvey’s intellectual formation, the scientific context of early modern Europe, the experimental structure of De Motu Cordis, and the enduring influence of Harvey’s methods upon later biomedical science. It argues that Harvey should properly be regarded not simply as the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, but as one of the principal founders of experimental medicine.
Jerry Asquith (Fri,) studied this question.