William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) Polina Grigoryeva 104 group

William Harvey, English physician who was the first to recognize the full circulation of the blood in the human body and to provide experiments and arguments to support this idea.

William Harvey made the momentous medical discovery that the flow of blood must be continuous and that its flow must be in one direction only. This discovery sealed his place in the history of medicine.

William Harvey was born in 1578 in Folkestone, Kent. Harvey studied at Caius College, Cambridge before he enrolled at the University of Padua in Harvey learned about the human body by dissection and anatomical observation.

Harvey joined the staff at St. Bartholomews Hospital and became a reader in anatomy and surgery. Harvey also continued his study into the vascular system and in 1616 he announced his discovery of the circulation of blood within the body.

Harvey explained how blood flowed in one direction throughout the body and that it was in the lungs where the transformation of venous blood to arterial blood took place.

Galen had always believed that the liver was the centre of circulation within the body

Harvey stated that he believed that the heart was a pump and that it worked by muscular force.

Harvey had seen during his experiments, such as the contraction of the walls of the heart cavities at the moment when they emptied of blood (systole) and the dilation of the cavities when filled (diastole).

His work was a major advance in Mans knowledge of the cardio-vascular system.

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