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On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals

William Harvey

Robert Willis (1847)

In De Motu Cordis (1628), the English physician William Harvey overturned more than a millennium of Galenic doctrine by demonstrating that the blood circulates continuously, driven by the heart as a muscular pump. Combining vivisection, quantitative reasoning about the volume of blood expelled per beat, and ligature experiments, he reached a conclusion that observation forced despite its break with ancient authority. Robert Willis's translation presents a landmark of the scientific revolution and the birth of modern physiology.

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Contents

1. Introduction
   1. Chapter I
   2. Chapter II
   3. Chapter III
   4. Chapter IV
   5. Chapter V
   6. Chapter VI
   7. Chapter VII
   8. Chapter VIII
   9. Chapter IX
   10. Chapter X
   11. Chapter XI
   12. Chapter XII
   13. Chapter XIII
   14. Chapter XIV
   15. Chapter XV
   16. Chapter XVI
   17. Chapter XVII
   18. Letter I
   19. Letter II
   20. Letter III
   21. Letter IV
   22. Letter V
   23. Letter VI
   24. Letter VII
   25. Letter VIII
   26. Letter IX
2. Appendix