IV The Zenith

Previous

Year by year Harvey continued to deliver the Lumleian lectures at the College of Physicians and to attend his patients at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He soon obtained an important and fairly lucrative practice. On the 3rd of February, 1618, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to James I. or in the language of the time, “The king, as a mark of his singular favour, granted him leave to consult with his ordinary physicians as to his Majesty’s health,” and at the same time he promised him the post of a Physician in Ordinary as soon as one should become vacant. This promise he was unable to fulfil, but it was redeemed by his son Charles I., who appointed Harvey a Physician in Ordinary in 1631 and remained his friend through life.

We can still obtain glimpses of Harvey’s practice during the ten years which preceded the issue in 1628 of his “Anatomical Essay on the Movement of the Heart and Blood.” Aubrey tells us that “he rode on horseback with a footcloth to visit his patients, his man still following on foot, as the fashion then was, which was very decent, now quite discontinued. The judges rode also with their footclothes to Westminster Hall, which ended at the death of Sir Robert Hyde, Lord Chief Justice. Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, would have revived it, but several of the judges being old and ill-horsemen would not agree to it.” The footcloth was originally a mark of dignity, and it is still seen in its full splendour hanging over the backs of the horses in a state pageant and in a debased form on those drawing the hearse at a funeral.

Besides being physician to the household of the king, Harvey seems to have held a similar position in the households of the most distinguished nobles and men of eminence. He treated amongst others the Lord Chancellor Bacon, always a weak and ailing man, and somewhat of a hypochondriac. Bacon, with the curious lack of individuality which has so often obscured the greatness of the highest form of speculative genius, entirely failed to impress the more practical mind of Harvey, who would not allow him to be a great philosopher, though he esteemed him much for his wit and style. Speaking of him in derision, he told Aubrey, “He writes philosophy like a Lord Chancellor.” Nothing, perhaps, brings home to us more clearly the real greatness of Aristotle and the immeasurably superior position to which he attained than this want of sympathy between Harvey and Bacon. Both were master minds, both were working on the lines laid down by Aristotle himself, yet their results were so little in accord that whilst Bacon, working upon the theoretical side, succeeded in undermining his authority, Harvey taking the experimental side actually enhanced his lustre.

The following notice of Harvey’s practice is preserved in the Domestic Series of the State Papers. It is dated the 18th of November, 1624, and it is interesting, because it shows that the country gentry had to obtain special leave if they wanted to stay in London during the winter:—

“Mr. Attorney.

“His Majesty is graciously pleased in regard of the indisposition of health of Sir William Sandis and his Lady and the great danger of their remove into the Country, as appears by the enclosed certificate of Dr. Harvey, to dispense with their stay in London this winter season, notwithstanding the proclamation. And accordingly requires you to take present order for their indemnity that no charge or trouble come upon them for their stay in London this winter for which they have his Majesty’s leave.”

But the patient did not improve under Harvey’s care, though he kept him alive, for it is noted again on the 1st of January, 1627-1628:—

“I do hereby certify of a truth that Sir William Sands is in body infirm and subject to those diseases (which) in the country he cannot receive remedy for, nor undergo and perform that course of physic which is fitting for his recovery.

William Harvey.

The Domestic Series of State Papers also contains a letter showing that Harvey was attending the Lord Treasurer for a fit of the stone on the 23rd of May, 1627.

The year 1628 may fairly be looked upon as the crowning year of Harvey’s scientific life. It was that in which he published at Frankfort-on-the-Main his matured account of the circulation of the blood. After its publication he was sometimes heard to say that “he fell mightily in his practice,” for it was believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained, and all the physicians were against him. Such ideas probably occurred to him in his later years when he was depressed by repeated attacks of gout. But party feeling ran high, and was even greater than professional jealousy at a time when Harvey was very closely connected with the losing side. Some of his contemporaries took advantage of the double meaning attaching to the word Circulator which Celsus applies to a merry andrew. It was also said about him that “though all of his profession would allow him to be an excellent anatomist, I never heard of many that admired his therapeutic way. I knew several practitioners in this town that would not have given threepence for one of his bills, as a man can hardly tell by his bills what he did aim at.” The apothecaries at this time were accustomed to buy up the bills or prescriptions of the leading physicians in much the same manner and for the same purpose that a clinical clerk or a dresser in a hospital now treasures up the prescriptions of his physician or surgeon. We can afford to smile at these pieces of contemporary criticism by empirics, for we remember that as the apothecaries objected to the practice of Harvey, the attorneys led by Coke sneered at the legal knowledge of Bacon, but in neither case has the verdict of posterity ratified that of contemporary opinion.

Harvey early attained to high office in the College of Physicians, then but a small body, though it contained as it has always done, the picked men of the medical profession. Here he was elected a Censor in 1613, an office to which he was reappointed in 1625 and again in 1629. The Censors were four fellows of the College appointed annually, with power “to supervise, watch, correct, and govern” those who practised physic in London or within the statutory limit of seven miles, whether members of the College or not. They had power to punish by fine and summary imprisonment in the Wood Street Counter, and the name of Harvey occurs more than once about this time in connection with proceedings taken by the College against quacks or “Empirics” as they were then called.

The Censors attended by the representatives of the Society of Apothecaries were empowered to visit the shops of the apothecaries in London to “search, survey, and prove whether the medicines, wares, drugs, or any thing or things, whatsoever in such shop or shops contained and belonging to the art and mystery of an apothecary be wholesome, meet and fit for the cure, health, and ease of his Majesty’s subjects.” These inquisitorial visits were made at irregular times every summer and autumn. The procession, consisting of the Censors with the Wardens and the Beadle of the Society of Apothecaries, started at one o’clock, and before six in the afternoon from twenty to thirty shops had been visited. At each shop the visitors entered and asked for a few drugs selected at random. They then examined the stock from which the supply was taken, as well as the individual sample offered, a few rough tests were applied, and if the drugs were found to be bad or adulterated they were at once destroyed by the simple but effectual method of throwing them out into the street. The records of each visitation were kept in a book belonging to the College of Physicians.

Dr. Robert Pitt, Censor in 1687 and again in 1702 has left us an interesting account of the results of such a visitation, which in all probability did not differ materially from those which it was Harvey’s duty to conduct. The Transcript of the Deposition in the time of Dr. Pitt’s censorship runs thus—

Mr. G——’s Shop.

London Laudanum without either colour or smell.

Oxycroceum without saffron.

Pil. Ruff. no colour of saffron. [This was a pill largely used as a preservative against the plague. It contained myrrh, aloes, and saffron.]


Mr. R——’s Shop.

Diascordium dark and thin, without a due proportion of the gums. [It was a compound electuary containing no less than 19 ingredients. It was considered useful in the treatment of epilepsy, megrim, want of appetite, wind, colic, and malignant fevers.]

London Laudanum, a dry, hard substance, without smell or colour.


Mr. S——’s Shop.

Diascordium too thin (let down with honey, I suppose).

Venice treacle, a thin body, much candied. [This, like Diascordium and Mithridate, was one of the complex electuary medicines of the Middle Ages. Its proportions were almost word for word those recommended by Galen in his treatise, ?e?? ???t?d?t??. It was also known as the treacle of Andromachus.]

London Laudanum, a dry, hard substance, without smell or colour.


Mr. G——’s Shop.

Diascordium thin bodied, much candied.

Venice treacle thin, candied, without its proportions.

London Laudanum, a dry, hard substance.


Mr. G.——’s Shop.

Paracelsus without its powders or gums.

Oxycroceum of a dark colour.

Diascordium of a thin substance.

Gascoin’s powder without bezoar. [This was the compound powder of crabs’ claws much used in measles, smallpox, and all spotted fevers. It contained in addition to bezoar and crabs’ eyes, red coral, white amber, hart’s horn philosophically prepared, and jelly of English vipers’ skins.]

London Laudanum hard, without smell or colour.

Pil. ex duobus without the oil of cloves. [This was reckoned one of the best and most general pills in the Dispensatory, being strong but yet safe. It was especially useful against scurvy, dropsy, and gout. It consisted of colocynth, scammony, and cloves.]


Mr. S——’s Shop.

Diascordium of a thin body without the gums.

Mithridate no colour of saffron. [This was the remedy par excellence until the middle of the eighteenth century. It was said to owe its name to Mithridates, King of Pontus and Bithynia, who invented it. Like Diascordium it was an electuary, though it was more complex, for it contained over fifty ingredients. Mithridate was reputed to cure the bites and stings of any poisonous animal. It expelled poison and cured nearly every disease. It was not only a cure, but a preservative against the plague and all pestilential and infectious fevers.]

London Laudanum neither smell nor colour.

Liquid Laudanum no smell, thin, no colour of saffron.

Gascoin’s powder without bezoar.

A part of Harvey’s time was employed in duties of this nature, but on the 3rd of December, 1627, he was appointed to the still more important office of “Elect.” The “Elects” were eight in number. They were chosen from the most cunning and expert men of the faculty in London. It was their duty once in a year to select one of their number to fill the office of President, whilst as a Board with a quorum of three they formed the examiners of those who desired to exercise or practise physic throughout England, whose fitness they certified by letters testimonial. These examinations were conducted at the house of the President, where, on the 9th of December, 1629, Harvey examined and approved that Dr. James Primrose who soon became the most malignant opponent of his teaching. Primrose was a pupil of Riolanus, Professor of Anatomy in Paris, and was well described as the quibbling advocate of exploded teaching.

Harvey seems to have comported himself well even in the high position of an elect, for in 1628 he was made Treasurer of the College, an office to which he was re-elected in 1629, so that he must have shown some of the business capacity which was so marked a feature in the other members of his family.

In this year Harvey received the commands of the King to accompany the Duke of Lennox (born in 1612) who was sent to travel abroad. This was the first interval in the monotony of his professional life since Harvey’s return to England from Padua. But the times soon became so broken that he never afterwards settled down again into anything like his old habits. He was nearly fifty-two years of age when, in September, 1629, the Lord Secretary Dorchester procured a licence for James Stuart, Duke of Lennox, to travel for three years taking with him Dr. Topham, Dean of Lincoln, John St. Almain, and eight other servants. The Duke, who was advanced to the Dukedom of Richmond by letters patent dated the 8th of August, 1641, afterwards became Lord Great Chamberlain, and held many honourable appointments in the reign of Charles I. Clarendon often mentions him as a young nobleman of the highest principles, and his staunch loyalty to the King is shown by his being one of the four Lords who with Juxon attended their master’s funeral at Windsor. He subscribed no less than £40,000 towards the expenses of the war.

Harvey had to make many arrangements before he could leave England. On the 3rd of December, 1629, he collected the seven “Elects” at his house, and, after a sumptuous banquet, he asked their permission to resign his office of Treasurer at the College of Physicians, a request which was immediately granted. On the 21st of January he applied for leave of absence from his post of physician to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, for the Minutes record—

“Curia tent. Sabti xxi die Januarii 1629-30.

“In presence of Sir Robt. Ducy Knight & Barronet,
President (and others).

Dr. Harvey.

“This day Dr. Harvey Physician to this hospital declares to this court that he is commanded by the Kings most excellent majesty to attend the illustrious Prince the now Duke of Lenox in his travels beyond the seas and therefore desireth this court would allow of [Edmund] Smith, Doctor in Physic for his deputy in performance of the office of physician for the poor of this hospital during his absence. It is thought fit that the Governors of this Hospital shall have further knowledge & satisfaction of the sufficiency of the said Mr. Smith. Then they to make their choice either of him or of some other whom they shall think meet for the execution of the same place during the absence of the said Dr. Harvey.”

Leave of absence having been thus granted by the College of Physicians and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Harvey had only to get a substitute for his Court appointment. An undated letter written from abroad by Harvey to Mr. Secretary Dorchester, says: “Before I went I entreated and appointed Dr. Chambers and Dr. Bethune [physicians in ordinary to the King] and one Dr. Smith of London, one of them at all occasions to perform the duty for me; and I acquainted the household therewith [though] it is not usual [to do so] for serjeant [surgeon] Primrose was away above a year (and he is surgeon of the household) and yet none were put in his place to wait whilst he was in Germany with my Lord Marquis. Sir Theodore Mayerne [too] in Switzerland in King James his time was away very long and none put in his place.” The letter was written upon an unfounded report which had reached Harvey in his absence that Dr. Adam Moesler “hath gotten to be appointed to wait in my place for the household.”

Dr. Aveling’s care has traced the course of the travellers on this journey. Sir Henry Mervyn writes to Nicholas (clerk of the Council) under the date of the 28th of July, 1630, “of having put over my Lord Duke [Lennox] for the coast of France.” The journey was therefore begun at this date, but the Duke and his retinue seem to have stayed for a time in the towns upon the French coast, for on the 2nd of August Sir Henry Mervyn writes that he is going to attend the Duke of Lennox, and purposes to be in the Downs, &c.; and again on the 10th of August he says he has landed the Duke of Lennox at Dieppe. On the 23rd of September of the same year Edward Dacres writes to Secretary Dorchester that the Duke of Lennox is now settled in Paris for the winter; and again on the 22nd of November, saying that the Duke is willing to stay in Paris, and that “in the spring he intends the tour de France, and in the end of the summer to go into Italy, unless the continuance of the wars or the plague hinder him.”

Dacres writes again, on the 5th of April, 1631, that the Duke is still in Paris but he thinks of going out of town for a few days. Harvey, however, was in London on the 8th of October and on the 22nd of December, 1630, so that he probably joined the Duke in Paris in the spring or early summer of 1631. Nothing is known of the movements of the party after April, until Dacres writes again to Dorchester in August, 1631, saying: “Blois proved a place not long to be endured by my Lord because of the plague which grew hot there, as Tours likewise, where we made little stay, so that we came down to Saumurs there to pass the dog days from whence we are now parting they being at an end. My Lord hath continually been in good health and intends now to follow your Lordship’s directions this winter for Spain whither we are now bending our course (vi Bordeaux) where we shall be before the latter end of September.”

It is probably of this part of his journey that Harvey writes to Viscount Dorchester, “the miseries of the countries we have passed and the hopes of our good success and such news your Honour hath from better hands. I can only complain that by the way we could scarce see a dog, crow, kite, raven or any other bird, or any thing to anatomise, only some few miserable people, the relics of the war and the plague where famine had made anatomies before I came. It is scarce credible in so rich, populous, and plentiful countries as these were that so much misery and desolation, poverty and famine should in so short a time be, as we have seen. I interprete it well that it will be a great motive for all here to have and procure assurance of settled peace. It is time to leave fighting when there is nothing to eat, nothing to be kept, and nothing to be gotten.” The forecast was correct. The Mantuan war was soon afterwards brought to a close by the mediation of Pope Urban VIII. It was one of the minor struggles in which Richelieu’s attempts to consolidate the power of his master were counteracted by the combined efforts of Spain and the Empire, for in the end Charles of Nevers was left to enjoy his Duchy of Mantua. The plague, too, was especially virulent in Northern Italy about this time. It was reckoned that above a million died of it in the territories which Lennox and his retinue would have traversed to reach Venice; and 33,000 are said to have died in Verona alone. It was partly for this reason and partly, perhaps, from political motives, that the travellers turned off into Spain instead of visiting Italy, as had been intended. In February, 1632, Sir Thomas Edmonde, writing to Sir Harry Vane, says: “the Duke of Lenox has been made a Grand in Spain;” and it was about this time that the party returned homewards.

Harvey was certainly in England on the 26th of March, 1632, for on that day he drew up a set of rules for the Library of the College of Physicians, towards a site for which he had subscribed £100 on the 22nd of December, 1630. The necessity for a new set of rules to govern the use of the Library seems to have been due to an important bequest of 680 volumes presented by Dr. Holsbosch, a graduate in medicine, and a German who had practised surgery and physic in England for fifty years, though he had not attached himself to the College. The new regulations laid down that the key of the room was to remain in the keeping of the President, whilst the key of the book-cases was kept by the Senior Censor. The Library was to be open on all College days to the Fellows, Candidates, and Licentiates; but no book was to be taken away from the College without leave from the President and Censor and the deposit of a “sufficient caution” for its value. Harvey was also present at a meeting of the College of Physicians on the last day of May, 1632, when he signed a petition to the King, praying him to limit the sale of certain poisons unless the purchaser was willing to give his name.

There is no record of the exact date at which Harvey was made Physician in Ordinary to the King Charles I., though the time is fixed approximately by the following extract from the minutes at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital:—

“Monday 25 April 1631 at a Court [of Governors]
held in the Mansion house in the presence of
Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor, President.

Dr. Andrewes

“It is granted that Richard Andrewes Doctor of Physic shall have the reversion, next avoidance and place of physician to this hospital after the death, resignation or other departure of Doctor Harvey now physician to this hospital late sworn Physician in Ordinary for his Majesty’s Household, with the yearly stipend thereunto now belonging.”

The actual date of his appointment seems to have been at some time during the quarter ending Lady Day, 1630, for the Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series) contains the record, “3 July 1635. To William Harvey, one of his Majesty’s physicians in ordinary, his annuity for a year ending at Our Lady Day 1631 £300.” And again on the 17th of July, 1635, “Dr. William Harvey £25;” and a few months later, on the 5th of February, 1635-1636—“Dr. William Harvey upon his annuity of £300 per annum £150.” These entries also make it appear that although his salary amounted to the considerable sum of £300 a year, it was paid very irregularly and by small instalments.

Harvey’s appointment as personal physician to the King seems to have brought him into close connection with his master, and it was no doubt at this time that Charles allowed him to obtain the intimate knowledge of the habits and structure of the deer which was afterwards turned to such good use in the treatise on Development. Harvey, in fact, became the personal friend of his king, he accompanied him everywhere, and consequently took a share in the hunting excursions to which his Majesty was so devoted.

This constant attendance at Court naturally interfered with Harvey’s professional duties, and his colleagues at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital soon began to complain of his absence.

“At a Court held on Sunday 19 January 1632-1623,
“In presence of Sir Robert Ducie Knight &
Baronet, President.

Dr. Harvy

“It hath been thought convenient upon complaint of some of the chirurgions of this hospital that whereas Doctor Harvy physician for the poor of the said hospital by reason of his attendance on the King’s Majesty cannot so constantly be present with the poor as heretofore he hath been, but sometimes doth appoint his deputy for the same. That therefor Doctor Andrewes physician in reversion of the same place to this hospital in the absence of Doctor Harvey do supply the same place whereby the said poor may be more respected and Doctor Andrewes the better acquainted to perform the same office when it shall fall [vacant], and in the mean time to be recompensed by this court yearly as shall be thought fit. This order not to prejudice Dr. Harvy in his yearly fee or in any other respect than aforesaid.”

Early in 1633 Harvey received the commands of Charles I. to attend him on his journey to Scotland, and the annexed Minute shows that he again endeavoured to gain the permission of the Governors of the hospital to allow Dr. Smith to act for him in his absence.

“13 May Anno Domini 1633.

“This day came into this Compting house Doctor Smith physician by the appointment of Dr. Harvey, physician to this hospital who is to attend the King’s Majesty into Scotland and tendered his service to Mr. Treasurer and other the Governors for the poor in the behalf and absence of Doctor Harvey. Answer was made by Mr. Treasurer that Doctor Andrewes physician in reversion to this house was by the Court ordered to attend the occasions of this house in the absence of Doctor Harvey and to have allowance from this house accordingly. Nevertheless if Doctor Smith pleased to accompany Doctor Andrewes in the business, this house would be very well content, unto which Doctor Smith replied that if Dr. Andrewes was appointed and did perform accordingly, there is no need of two.”

It seems to be evident from these Minutes that Dr. Smith was Harvey’s nominee. He was his life-long friend, and he only survived a fortnight the opening of the Harveian Museum, of which he was the most active promoter. Dr. Andrewes, on the other hand, had powerful City influence to back him. He was a distinguished graduate of St. John’s College, Oxford. He had been educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School, and stood high in the favour of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. He died the 25th of July, 1634.

Charles’ tour in Scotland was fraught with the most momentous consequences both to himself and his kingdom. He was crowned with great pomp in the Abbey Church at Holyrood, and the rochet worn by the Bishop of Moray when he preached before the assembled Court on this occasion was an innovation which gave the greatest offence to the people. Their discontent was still further increased by an order from the King enjoining the ministers to wear surplices and the Bishops vestments instead of the Geneva gown to which they had been accustomed since the Reformation. The dissatisfaction thus aroused culminated in the Liturgy tumults of 1637, when Jenny Deans launched her stool at the head of the Bishop of St. Giles whilst he was preaching in Edinburgh. The tumults in turn led to the formation of “the Tables” and to the taking of “the Covenant,” which are so familiar to every student of the history of the Civil War.

Harvey must have been in close attendance upon the King during the whole of his stay in Scotland, but he probably interested himself very little in the proceedings of the Court or in the hot discussions between the rival sects around him. We know, indeed, that, he was thinking about the method by which a chick is formed within the egg, and that to solve the point he paid a visit to the Bass Rock, of which he gives the following description in the eleventh essay of his treatise on Development:—

“In the barren island of the East Coast of Scotland, such flights of almost every kind of seabirds congregate, that were I to state what I have heard from those who were worthy of credit, I fear I should be held guilty of telling greater stories than they who have committed themselves about the Scottish geese produced as they say from the fruits of certain trees (which they had never seen) that had fallen into the sea.[4] What I have seen myself, however, I will relate truthfully.

“There is a small island, Scotsmen call it the Bass (let it serve as a type of all the rest), lying near the shore, but in deep water. It is so rugged and precipitous that it might rather be called a huge stone or rock than an island, for it is not more than a mile in circumference. The whole surface of the island in the months of May and June is almost completely carpeted with nests, birds, and fledglings. There are so many that you can scarcely avoid stepping upon them, and when they fly the crowd is so great that it hides the sun and the sky like a cloud. The screaming and the din too are so great that you can hardly hear any one speaking close to you. If you look down upon the sea, as if from a tower or tall precipice, whichever way you turn you will see an enormous number of different kinds of birds skimming about and gaping for their prey, so that the sea looks like a pond which is swarming with frogs in springtime, or like those sunny hills looked at from below when they are covered with numerous flocks of sheep and goats. If you sail round the island and look up you see on every ledge, shelf, and recess innumerable flocks of birds of every sort and size, more numerous than the stars seen at night in the unclouded moonless sky, and if you watch the flights that come and go incessantly, you might imagine that it was a mighty swarm of bees. I should hardly be believed if I said what a large revenue was obtained annually from the feathers and from the old nests (used for firing) and from the eggs, which are boiled and then sold, though the owner told me himself. There is one feature, too, which seems to be especially worthy of note because it bears closely upon my argument and is clear proof of what I have just said about the crowd of birds. The whole island shines brilliantly white to those who approach it, and the cliffs are as bright as if they were made of the whitest chalk; yet the natural colour of the rock is dusky and black. It is due to a brittle crust of the whitest colour that is spread over all and gives the island its whiteness and brilliancy, a crust of the same consistence, colour, and nature as the shell of an egg.”

Harvey was in London again on the 5th of October, 1633, for on this day, at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, “upon the motion of Dr. Harvey, physician to this house, it is thought fit that Tuesday se’night in the afternoon be the time that the Governors shall hear himself and the Chirurgeons upon some particulars concerning the good of the poor of this house and reformation of some orders conceived to be in this house. And the Chirurgeons and the Apothecary to be warned to meet accordingly. And Mr. Alderman Mowlson, Sir Maurice Abbott, Mr. Alderman Perry, and others the Governors here present, are intreated to meet at the Compting house to hear and determine the same.” Accordingly, on the 15th of October some radical changes were made in the management of the hospital, as is indicated in the next Minute. The articles are introduced with the following preface, which gives a clear account of the high estimation in which Harvey’s services were held at this time. “This day Dr. Harvey, physician to this hospital, presented to this court [of Governors] certain articles for the good and benefit of the poor of this house, which the Governors have taken into their considerations and do allow and order them to be put in practice. And all defaults in the not performance of any of the said articles to be corrected and amended by the Governors as they in their discretions shall think fit and convenient.

“Forasmuch as the poor of this house are increased to a greater number than formerly have been, to the great charge of this hospital, and to the greater labour and more necessary attendance of a physician. And being much more also than [it] is conceived one physician may conveniently perform.

“And forasmuch as Dr. Harvey, the now physician to this hospital, is also chosen to be physician to his Majesty, and [is] thereby tied to daily service and attendance on his Majesty,

“It hath been thought fit and so ordered, that there shall be for this present occasion two physicians for this hospital. And that Dr. Andrewes, physician in reversion, be now admitted to be also an immediate physician to this hospital. And to have the salary or yearly fee of £33 6s, 8d. for his pains henceforth during the pleasure of this court.

“And this court, for the long service of the said Dr. Harvey to this hospital, and in consideration that he is physician to his Majesty, do give and allow him leave and liberty to dispose of himself and time, and to visit the poor no oftener than he in his discretion shall think fit.

“And it is ordered that Mr. Treasurer shall also pay unto the said Dr. Andrewes the sum of £20 for his pains taken in visiting and prescribing for the poor of this house for this year last past by the direction and at the request of the Governors of this house.

“Also at the suit of the apothecary (for the considerations abovesaid), it is thought fit and so granted, that £10 be yearly added to his salary from Michaelmas last past for and towards the maintenance of a journeyman to be daily present in the apothecary’s shop in this hospital to help him in the dispatch of his business during the pleasure of this court.

“Likewise at the motion of Dr. Harvey, it is granted that Mr. Treasurer shall pay unto Dr. Smith, who was the deputy of Dr. Harvey and by him appointed in his absence to visit the poor of this hospital, the sum of £10 in gratuity from this court, and he is thereupon intreated in respect the hospital hath now two physicians, that he do not henceforth trouble himself any more to visit or prescribe to the poor of this hospital.”

On the same day (October 15, 1633), “Dr. Harvey, physician to this hospital, presented to this court certain orders or articles by him thought fit to be observed and put in practice, viz.:—

“1. That none be taken into the Hospital but such as be curable, or but a certain number of such as are incurable.

“Allowed.

“2. That those that shall be taken in for a certain time be discharged at that time by the Hospitaller, unless they obtain a longer time. And to be discharged at the end of that time also.

“In use.

“3. That all such are certified by the doctor uncurable, and scandalous or infectious shall be put out of the said house or to be sent to an outhouse,[5] and in case of sudden inconvenience this to be done by the Doctor or Apothecary.

“Allowed.

“4. That none be taken into any outhouse on the charge of this Hospital but such as are sent from hence.

“Allowed.

“5. That no Chirurgion, to save himself labour, take in or present any for the doctor; otherwise the charge of the Apothecary’s shop will be so great, and the success so little, as it will be scandalous to the house.

“Allowed.

“6. That none lurk here for relief only or for slight causes.

“Allowed.

“7. That if any refuse to take their physic, they may be discharged by the Doctor or Apothecary or punished by some order.

“Allowed.

“8. That the Chirurgions, in all difficult cases or where inward physic may be necessary, shall consult with the Doctor, at the times he sitteth once in the week and then the Master [i.e., the Surgeon] himself relate to the Doctor what he conceiveth of the cure and what he hath done therein. And in a decent and orderly manner proceed by the Doctor’s directions for the good of the poor and credit of the house.[6]

“Agreed unto.

“9. That no Chirurgion or his man do trepan the head, pierce the body, dismember [amputate], or do any great operation on the body of any but with the approbation and by the direction of the Doctor (when conveniently it may be had) and the Chirurgions shall think it needful to require.

“Agreed unto.

“10. That no Chirurgion or his man practice by giving inward physic to the poor without the approbation of the Doctor.

“Allowed.

“11. That no Chirurgion be suffered to perform the cures in this house by his boy or servant without his own oversight or care.

“Allowed.

“12. That every Chirurgion shall shew and declare unto the Doctor whensoever he shall in the presence of the patient require him, what he findeth and what he useth to every external malady; that so the Doctor being informed may better with judgment order his prescriptions.

“The Chirurgions protest against this.[7]

“13. That every Chirurgion shall follow the direction of the Doctor in outward operations for inward causes for the recovery of every patient under their several cures, and to this end shall once in the week attend the Doctor, at the set hour he sitteth to give directions for the poor.

“Agreed by the Chirurgions.

“14. That the Apothecary, Matron, and Sisters do attend the Doctor when he sitteth to give directions and prescriptions, that they may fully conceive his directions and what is to be done.

“Allowed.

“15. That the Matron and Sisters shall signify and complain to the Doctor, or Apothecary in the Doctor’s absence, if any poor lurk in the house and come not before the Doctor when he sitteth or taketh not his physic but cast it away and abuse it.

“Allowed.

“16. That the Apothecary keep secret and do not disclose what the Doctor prescribeth nor the prescriptions he useth but to such as in the Doctor’s absence may supply his place and that with the Doctor’s approbation.

“Allowed.”

The ordinances are peremptory, and for many years they governed the action of the Hospital in the control of the patients. Some of them, indeed (as §6), are still acted upon. They show that Harvey was determined to maintain the superior status of the physicians, and there is but little room to doubt that this was one of the guiding principles of his life. In February, 1620, he was appointed by the College of Physicians to act with Dr. Mayerne and Dr. William Clement in watching the proceedings of the surgeons who were moving Parliament in their own interest. For this purpose he attended a Conference at Gray’s Inn on the 17th of February, 1620, and he afterwards went to Cambridge; but he failed to induce the University to co-operate with the College of Physicians.

On the 4th of July, 1634, Harvey gave a tanned human skin to the College of Physicians, and on the same day by the order of the President he made a speech to the Apothecaries persuading them to conform to the orders of the College.

On the 7th of August, 1634, John Clarke was granted the reversion of Harvey’s office of Physician to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital “in the room and place of Dr. Andrewes late deceased. And this Hospital do order that after Doctor Harvey his death or departure, there be but one Physician forthwards.” Harvey, however, outlived Dr. Clarke, who died in 1653 and was buried in St. Martin’s, Ludgate, but as Harvey did not attend the Hospital after 1643 Clarke probably acted as sole Physician to the Hospital for ten years before he died. He was President of the College of Physicians 1645-1649.

The year 1634 was long memorable on account of “the Lancashire witches,” whose story is not yet quite forgotten. Their accusation, as in that of the great outbreak at Salem in New England in 1692, began in the lying story of a child. Edward Robinson, a boy of ten, and the son of a woodcutter living on the borders of Pendle Forest in Lancashire, played truant and to excuse himself accused Mother Dickenson of being a witch. The boy, being examined by the magistrates, told his story so openly and honestly that it was at once believed. He said that as he was roaming in one of the glades of the forest picking blackberries he saw two greyhounds which he thought belonged to one of the gentlemen living in the neighbourhood. A hare appearing at the same time he hied on the dogs, but neither of them would stir. Angry at the beasts he took up a switch and was about to punish them when one of the dogs started up as a woman, the other as a little boy. The woman was Mother Dickenson, who offered him money to sell his soul to the devil, but he refused. She then took a bridle out of her pocket, and shaking it over the head of the other little boy he instantly became a horse. Mother Dickenson seized Robinson in her arms and sprang upon the animal. They rode with inconceivable swiftness over forests, fields, bogs, and rivers until they came to a large barn. The witch alighted, and taking him by the hand led him inside. There he saw seven old women pulling at seven halters which hung from the roof. As they pulled, large pieces of meat, lumps of butter, loaves of bread, basins of milk, hot puddings and black puddings fell from the halters on to the floor. Thus a supper was provided, and when it was ready other witches came to share it. Many persons were arrested, for the boy was led about from church to church to identify those he had seen in the barn.

The story made a great sensation and Sir William Pelham wrote to Lord Conway that “the greatest news from the country is of a huge pack of witches which are lately discovered in Lancashire, whereof it is said nineteen are condemned and that there are at least sixty already discovered. It is suspected that they had a hand in raising the great storm wherein his Majesty was in so great danger at sea in Scotland.” Popular report exaggerated the number arrested, but seven of the accused were condemned and Bishop Bridgman, of Chester, was requested to examine them. He went to the gaol and found that three had died and another, Janet Hargreaves, lay “past hope of recovery.” Of the three examined by him two declared that they had no knowledge of witchcraft, but the third, Margaret Johnson, a widow of sixty, whom the Bishop describes as a person of strong imagination and weak memory, confessed to have been a witch for six years. She told him, “There appeared to her a man in black attire, who said, if she would give him her soul she should have power to hurt whom she would. He called himself Mamilion, and appeared in the shape of a brown-coloured dog, a white cat, and a hare, and in these shapes sucked her blood.”

The report of the Bishop to Secretary Coke reached the ears of the King, who commanded Henry Earl of Manchester, the Lord Privy Seal, to write:—

“To Alexander Baker Esq. and Sarjeant Clowes
his Majesty’s Chirurgions.

“These shall be to will and require you forthwith to make choice of such midwives as you shall think fit to inspect and search the bodies of those women that were lately brought by the sheriff of the County of Lancaster indicted for witchcraft and to report unto you whether they find about them any such marks as are pretended: wherein the said midwives are to receive instructions from Mr. Dr. Harvey his Majesty’s Physician and yourselves.

“Dated at Whitehall the 29 June 1634.

H. Manchester.”

The prisoners, who were then at the Ship Tavern in Greenwich, were brought to London upon the receipt of the King’s order. They were examined and the following certificate was issued:—

“Surgeons Hall in Monkwell Street, London.

“2 July A.D. 1634.

“We in humble obedience to your Lordship’s command have this day called unto us the Chirurgeons and midwives whose names are hereunder written who have by the directions of Mr. Dr. Harvey (in our presence and his) made diligent search and inspection on those women which were lately brought up from Lancaster and find as followeth, viz.:—

“On the bodies of Jennett Hargreaves, Ffrances Dicconson and Mary Spencer nothing unnatural nor anything like a teat or mark or any sign that any such thing hath ever been.

“On the body of Margaret Johnson we find two things (which) may be called teats. The first in shape like to the teat of a bitch but in our judgement nothing but the skin as it will be drawn out after the application of leeches. The second is like the nipple or teat of a woman’s breast, but of the same colour with the rest of the skin without any hollowness or issue for any blood or juice to come from thence.”

The report is signed by ten midwives, by Alexander Reid, M.D., the lecturer on Anatomy at the Barber Surgeons’ Hall, whom Harvey seems to have deputed to take his place, and by six surgeons evidently chosen from amongst the most eminent of those then practising in London.

The result of this report was that four of the seven convicted witches were pardoned, an exercise of mercy “which may have been due,” says Mr. Aveling, “to the enlightened views and prompt and energetic action of Dr. Harvey.”

There is no doubt that at this time and throughout his life Harvey practised every branch of his profession. That he was primarily a physician is evident; that he was a surgeon is shown by the fact that in his will he bequeathed to Dr. Scarborough his “silver instruments of surgery,” whilst in his writings he says, “Looking back upon the office of the arteries, I have occasionally, and against all expectation, completely cured enormous sarcoceles by the simple means of dividing or tying the little artery that supplied them, and so preventing all access of nourishment or spirit to the part affected, by which it came to pass that the tumour on the verge of mortification was afterwards easily extirpated with the knife or searing iron.” No one, reading his treatise on Development, can doubt for a moment that he was well versed in the diseases of women and in such practical midwifery as the prejudices and habits of the time allowed him to become familiar. Specialism, indeed, as it is now understood in England, did not exist at this time, though there was a debased form in which men attended only to outward injuries or to internal complaints.

Harvey sometimes got into trouble with his cases, as must always happen even to the most experienced. The records of the Barber Surgeons’ Company contain the following notice under the date 17th of November, 1635. It has the marginal note, “Dr. Harvey’s ill practise”:—

“This day Wm. Kellett being called here in Court for not making presentation of one of Mr. Kinnersley’s maids that died in his charge, he said here in Court that Mr. Doctor Harvey being called to the patient did upon his view of the patient say, that by means of a boulster [poultice?] the tumour on the temporal muscle could be discussed and his opinion was that there was no fracture but the vomiting came by reason of the foulness of the stomach and to that purpose prescribed physic by Briscoe the Apothecary, so the patient died by ill practice, the fracture being neglected and the Company not called to the view.” When a person was dangerously ill of a surgical disease in London it was long the custom for the practitioner to call in those surgeons who held an official position in the Barber Surgeons’ Company. This was called “viewing” the patient. It divided the responsibility whilst it ensured that everything possible was done for the relief of the patient.

In this year too Harvey was ordered by the King to examine the body of Thomas Parr, who is said to have died at the extraordinary age of 152 years and nine months, having survived through the reigns of nine princes. He had lived frugally in Shropshire until shortly before his death, when he was brought to London by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who showed him to the King. Harvey examined the body on the 16th of November, 1635, the birthday—as he is careful to note—of Her Serene Highness Henrietta Maria, Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. The notes of the autopsy came into the possession of Harvey’s nephew Michael, who presented them to Dr. Bett, and they were not printed until 1669, when they were published in Dr. Bett’s work “On the Source and Quality of the Blood.” The notes give a clear account of the appearances seen upon opening the body, and the very practical conclusion is drawn that as all the internal parts seemed so healthy the old man might have escaped paying the debt due to nature for some little time longer if nothing had happened to interfere with his usual habits. His death is therefore attributed to the change from the pure air of Shropshire to that of London, and to the alteration in his diet which necessarily attended his residence in the house of a great nobleman.

The mutual interest taken by the Earl of Arundel and Harvey in old Parr may have led to the friendship which existed between the two men; perhaps, too, Lord Arundel—the prince of art collectors, to whom we owe the Arundel marbles—had detected in Harvey some similar love of art which rendered him a kindred spirit. It is clear that some bond of union existed, for in the following year—1636—Lord Arundel was sent to Vienna as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Emperor Ferdinand in connection with the peace which the Protestant States of Germany had concluded in 1635. The mission left England in April, 1636; and the Clarendon State Papers contain a letter dated from Cologne in May in which Lord Arundel speaks of a visit to the Jesuits’ new college and church, where he says “they received me with all civility,” and then adds jokingly, “I found in the College little Doctor Harvey, who means to convert them.” There are no means of knowing when or why Harvey left England, but he seems to have attached himself to the Embassy and to have visited with it the principal cities on the way to Vienna.

He used the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the leading scientific men in Germany, as he had already introduced himself to those in France on a former journey. On the 20th of May, 1636, he was at Nuremberg, where he wrote to Caspar Hofmann offering to demonstrate the circulation of the blood. He has heard, he says, that Hofmann complained of his theory, that “he impeached and condemned Nature of folly and error, and that he had imputed to her the character of a most clumsy and inefficient artificer in suffering the blood to become recrudescent, and making it return again and again to the heart in order to be reconcocted only to grow effete again in the arterial system: thus uselessly spoiling the perfectly made blood merely to find her something to do.” Tradition says that Harvey actually gave this demonstration in public, and that it proved satisfactory to every one except to Hofmann himself. The old man—then past the grand climacteric—remained unconvinced, and as he continued to urge objections Harvey at length threw down his knife and walked out of the theatre.

We are indebted to Aubrey for the following anecdote, which is probably more true than some of his other statements about Harvey, for it is in exact accordance with what we know of his habits. Aubrey says that one of the Ambassador’s gentlemen, Mr. William Hollar—the celebrated painter—told him that in this voyage “Dr. Harvey would still be making observations of strange trees and plants, earths, &c., and sometimes [he was] like to be lost. So that my Lord Ambassador would be really angry with him, for there was not only a danger of thieves, but also of wild beasts.” How real the danger was may be gauged by remembering that the party was passing through the country devastated by the Thirty Years’ War, which had still to drag out its disastrous length until it was brought to a close by the peace of Westphalia in 1648—a time so productive of lawlessness that it was only two years since Wallenstein, the great Commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces, had been murdered by those who were afterwards publicly rewarded by his Imperial master.

Harvey parted company with the Embassy at Ratisbon, for in a letter dated from there he is spoken of as “Honest little Harvey whom the Earl is sending to Italy about some pictures for his Majesty.” From Ratisbon he proceeded to Rome, where the pilgrims’ book at the English College shows that he dined in the refectory on the 5th of October, 1636. Dr. Ent dined there the same night. The two travellers probably met by arrangement, for Ent was born at Sandwich, closely allied as a Cinque Port to Folkestone, Harvey’s native home. He was educated too in Cambridge—at Sidney Sussex College—and after five years at Padua he took his degree of Doctor of Physic on the 28th of April, 1636. Harvey and Ent had therefore much in common, and they remained firm friends until Harvey died. Ent’s love for Harvey led him to defend the doctrine of the circulation against the attacks of Parisanus; Harvey’s love for Ent caused him to entrust to him the essay on Development; to be printed or preserved unpublished as Ent should think most fit.

Nothing is known of Harvey’s return to England except that he was in London attending to his duties and seeing his patients at the end of the year 1636.

The following certificate appears to be the only record left of his work during the next two years. It is dated the 2nd of December, 1637:

“Having had experience of the disposition and weakness of the body of Sir Thomas Thynne, Knight (who hath been and still is our patient), we testify that we are of opinion that it will be dangerous for the health of his body to travel this winter into the country and place of his usual abode until he hath better recovered his health and strength.

Will. Harvey.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Clyx.com


Top of Page
Top of Page