William Harvey is most remembered for being the first physician to describe the circulatory system and how blood flows through the body. He was born in England in 1578, where he became a doctor at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. It was there that he published his groundbreaking research on the circulatory system, which helped to revolutionize medicine and save countless lives.
Harvey’s experiments on the circulatory system were some of the first to use live animals. He experimented with both dogs and frogs by opening up their bodies and examining their hearts and arteries. By doing so, he discovered that blood flowed from one side of the heart to another via arteries, rather than flowing directly from one side of the heart to another as previously thought.
Harvey’s work on the circulatory system was published in 1628 in a book called “De Motu Cordis.” After its publication, however, it wasn’t until nearly 50 years later that his work was rediscovered and began to be used to treat patients—long after he had passed away at age 79.
Today we know William Harvey as one of history’s most important physicians because his work revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives around
