The Comparative Embryology Man

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This topic was inspired by a course I took on Literature of the Earlier Renaissance (ENGL 227) at UNC-CH.

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William Harvey— the comparative embryology man — was the first to acknowledge the human body's circulatory system. In his first major medical work, De Motu Cordis (1628), Anatomical Expectations on the Generation of Animals, Harvey revealed that the heart pumps and blood circulates through our body from veins and arteries. He utilized mechanical language to describe the whole circulatory system as a machine. Although people recoiled from this comparison, they preferred to separate the living from the artifactual. The rise of mechanical philosophy also disturbed those from different theological camps, where they often held religious beliefs and did not want to associate the human body with a little machine. However, Harvey's analogy proved convenient in translating his message to his audience.

Harvey was the first to introduce the human body as a self-regulating system. Before that, there was a greater sense of interconnectedness in terms of different organs and systems of the body (this proposal can be harmful as we now understand how one body system affects the other). Harvey was interested in continuing the growing work concerning anatomy and embryology. In the book, he justified his intentions towards greater advancement of learning in the pursuit of the truth. He also acknowledged the tendency to romanticize scientific discoveries, in which he wants no part. With this, Harvey prefaced himself with a qualification on why one should not take his word too seriously. Harvey applies a calculated form of modesty in his language. In this period, people believed the truth would eventually triumph, and it was best to remain modest.

It reminds me of what my tour guide emphasized at Museo Galileo – when finding a discovery, it's best to keep water in your mouth, as the Italians would say back in the day. But this begs the question of how you convince people of your findings. Instead of being dogmatic and forceful, Harvey insisted on not "shooting the messenger," which aided his later success. Come to think of it, if the Church posed his findings as a threat or something meant to be concealed from the public, it only intrigues the public more as human curiosity is peaked.

More politically speaking, Harvey was no stranger to expressing his devotion to the royalist cause (of course, before King Charles was decapitated in 1649). He perhaps viewed the royal bloodline as a central regulating role that keeps the mechanical world functioning, such as the heart and circulatory system. 

Although Harvey was a staunch loyalist who defended the English monarchy, he recognized that his love for authority could be problematic. Harvey feared that if everyone always agreed with Aristotle, there would be no real scientific or medical progress. This is where you begin to observe shifting attitudes in his introduction and utilize Baconian language.

It's fascinating how Harvey arrived at these conclusions relying on experimentation and calculation that would revolutionize science and medicine forever.