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This book presents a new interpretation of how and why the discovery of the circulation of the blood in animals was made. It has long been known that the English physician William Harvey (1578-1657) was a follower of Aristotle, but his most strikingly 'modern' and original discovery - of the circulation of the blood - resulted from Harvey following Aristotle's ancient programme of investigation into animals. This is a new reading of the most important discovery ever made in anatomy by one man and produces not only a radical re-reading of Harvey as anatomist, but also of Aristotle and his investigations of animals.
List of contents
Preface / Prologue. 'Nine years and more': an overview of the story / Introduction / Chapter 1. Aristotle's animal and the question of the soul / Chapter 2. Aristotle On the causes of the parts of animals / Chapter 3. Aristotle's animal in Padua: the anatomical investigations of Fabricius / Chapter 4. William Harvey: pupil, physician, Professor / Chapter 5. William Harvey, searcher into the vegetative soul / Chapter 6. 'The wonderful circulation of the blood, first found out by me' / Chapter 7. Method and experiment / Chapter 8. 'The anatomy of the blood': the blood as a new research object / Chapter 9. Precursing Aristotle: Why and how did we lose this Aristotle? / Chapter 10. Harvey and his historians: Why and how did we lose this Harvey? / Appendix: English or Latin? / Bibliography
About the author
Andrew Cunningham was for many years Wellcome Trust Lecturer and then Senior Research Fellow in the History of Medicine in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University.
Summary
This book presents a new interpretation of how and why the discovery of the circulation of the blood in animals was made.
