De motu cordis (1628)
Visualising Harvey's De motu cordis. Harvey's masterpiece (Image 1) is not only a landmark treatise in this history of anatomy and physiology: it is also a brilliant example of the experimental method applied to the discipline of medicine. Harvey claimed to have written the book, not from reading other books, but from studying living things themselves. But the technology of his day did not afford readers of his treatise the same privilege: the four famous figures reproduced here (Images 2-3) are the only visual aids contained in the entire book. Unless they had access to a whole programme of experimentation themselves, readers of De motu cordis have not only had to accept his testimony on trust, but also to tax their own imaginations in attempting to understand the observations he describes.
Video. In order to repair this deficiency, the Royal College of Physicians used the new medium of film to produce a pioneering educational video illustrating the key stages of Harvey's work with animated diagrams and footage of key dissections and experiments. First undertaken in 1928, the film was radically reworked in 1957; the film was further refreshed in 1971-72 and shortened in 1978. This latest version (available below) still looks rather dated in presentation, but its content is that of an educational classic, 'highly recommended' by Dr. W.F. Bynum (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine) 'as ...one of the best films ever produced on the history of medicine...' You can read more about the history of this educational film here; it raises important questions as to 20th and 21st century ethics (as it features scenes of animal vivisection).
The video pairs quotations from De motu cordis with the corresponding experimental reconstructions. We have added subtitles to help one follow the commentary; please press CC in Vimeo to see them. The video can profitably be slowed down to 0.75 of the speed as the narrator speaks fast. Length: 27:34 minutes.
The quotations nominally follow the English translation of De motu cordis, 1653 (The Anatomical Exercises of Dr William Harvey). However, the translation has been modernised and in some cases it is quite different than The Anatomical Exercises. The passages are given below, with page numbers from the 1847 translation of De motu cordis, available online.
08:03: 'When I first applied my mind to observation that I might find out the use of the motion of the heart, [...] At last using daily more search and diligence, I did believe I had hit the nail on the head, unwinded and freed myself from this Labyrinth, and gained the knowledge I so much desired.' ' - beginning of chapter I, p. 19.
08:39: 'First then, after you have opened the chest and cut up the capsule, which immediately surrounds the heart, you may observe that the heart moves sometimes, sometimes rests [...] If you observe attentively until the heart begins to die and to beat more faintly and in its moment of stillness lies drooping' - beginning of chapter II, p. 21.
09:31: 'There are as it were at one time two motions, one of the auricles, and the other of the ventricles, and they are not all together simultaneous but the motion of the auricles goes before and the motion of the ventricles follows. [...] so that from thence it appears which way the blood comes into the ventricles, not by attraction or distension of the ventricles but sent in by the impulsion of the auricles.' - beginning of chapter IV, pp. 26-27.
10:43: 'There is here with us a sort of very little fish called a Shrimp, whose body is transparent [...] so that between being seen and not being seen, as it were between being and not being, it did represent a beating, and the beginning of life.' - end of chapter IV, pp. 30-31.
11:44: 'In fish, if you cut the vessel which leads from the heart to the gills you will see the blood forcibly thrust out through the cut at the very moment that the heart is tensed and contracted [...] as when one blows into a glove and all the fingers are distended at the same time and mimic the impulsion of the air' - chapter III, pp. 24-25.
12:44: 'That opinion is not to be tolerated which does assert that the blood seeps through hidden pores in the septum of the heart out of the right ventricle into the left [...] or else through the substance of the lungs, thin, loose, most soft and spongious' - proem, pp. 17-18 (beginning).
13:32: 'There are in the orifice of the pulmonary artery three doors made like a sigma or half moon [...] they meet together in a three-cornered line such as is left by the bite of a leech so that they may prevent the reflux of blood' - chapter VI, p. 37.
14:43: 'Now truly when I had often and seriously considered with myself the many varied means of searching, [...] I began to bethink myself whether it might not have a kind of movement as it were in a circle' - chapter VIII, pp. 45(end)-46.
16:10: 'Let us suppose how much less the heart may contain in its contraction and from thence how much blood is thrust out into the aorta [...] So likewise in a sheep in whose body is generally not contained more than four pounds of blood for I have tried it' - chapter IX, pp. 48-49.
17:19: 'If anyone cut up a live snake he will see the heart beat calmly and distinctly for more than one hour [...] But letting go the artery the heart returns to its normal constitution in colour, size and beat.' - chapter X, pp. 53(end)-54.
19:29: 'Some experiments are to be taken note of which show plainly that the blood enters every member of the body through the arteries and returns through the veins [...] and in the space of 10 or 12 pulses you will see that the hand is exceedingly full with the much blood that is driven and forced into it' - chapter XI, pp. 54-56.
22:01: 'The most famous Hieronymus Fabricius of Aquapendente first described these membranous valves in the veins as exceedingly thin [...] you will find yourself perfectly convinced concerning the circulation of the blood and of its swift motion' - chapter XIII, pp. 62-67.
24:52: 'And now let me put forward my opinion concerning the circulation of the blood. [...] and lastly that the motion and pulsation of the heart is the only cause' - chapter XIV, p. 68.
26:04: 'All these phenomena which can be observed during dissection, [...] I have done for what cause all these things were so made and appointed' - chapter XVII, 85(end)-86.
Credit for video extracts and subtitles: Georgiana D. Hedesan (October 2021)
1978 Video: CC BY-NC 3.0 US Wellcome Trust, 2008.