functioned and certainly no understanding of individual organ function. At
the dawn of the 17th century, there was still not a single human being who
grasped what breathing accomplished, how nutrients were taken up from
the food we ate, and why our hearts pounded in our chests.
In the year 1600 C.E., a young Englishman abandoned Cambridge
medical school in the midst of his studies, determining to venture to
Europe’s home of scholasticism and to the Venetian city of Padua. William
Harvey (1578–1657) had earned his bachelor’s degree several years earlier
at Cambridge’s Gonville & Caius College, but sensing greater prospects in
Italy, made his way to Dover to cross the English Channel.
While his companions embarked on a ship bound for Calais without
incident, William Harvey was singled out by the governor at the port.
“You must not go, but must be kept prisoner,” the governor told Harvey.
The young Cantabrigian was furious, but was forced to watch as his
friends sailed away on a packet boat into the evening. During the voyage
the boat was caught up in sudden storm, capsizing and leading to the death
of all those on board. News reached Dover of the cataclysm, and as the
only passenger not allowed to board, Harvey sought out the governor who
had detained him. Why had Harvey been the sole isolate, alone on the
English shore while his friends drowned?
The governor informed Harvey that “Two nights previously I saw a
perfect vision in a dream of Doctor Harvey, who came to pass over to
Calais; and I was given a warning to stop you.” Although Harvey was
completely unknown to the governor, this premonition had saved his life,
and he often told this story as evidence of a special providence and
mission for his life.^3 The world’s first physiologist had perhaps been
identified by the gods, and although it would take years to publish his
manifesto about the function of the cardiovascular system, his journey of
exploration was officially underway at the onset of the Age of
Experimentation.
Like Isaac Newton after him, William Harvey was from the English
yeoman class, freeholders who cultivated small estates and the educations
of their progeny. The 16th and 17th centuries were auspicious times for
upward mobility; William Harvey’s patrilineal sheep-farming
predecessors had made provision for his future success, and while his
father had little education, the benefits of his financial success surely paid
dividends in William’s and his brothers’ futures.