William Harvey

Although brilliant William Harvey became the doctor of choice for

the wealthy, the nobility, and even the King of England, he never

stopped giving free treatments to the poor.

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It may seem hard to believe, but until William Harvey came along, even the best doctors
in Europe didn’t know that your heart pumps blood around your body. The common
wisdom was that blood was created by your liver, and the heart pumped air and heat
through your body, along with just some of your blood!
So, you can imagine the uproar in 1628 when William Harvey published a book that
explained exactly how the entire circulatory system worked, from your heart to arteries
and veins. He was completely right, but his work contradicted the belief that had been
around for hundreds of years. Many other doctors refused to believe Dr. Harvey, and said
his theories were crazy.
William Harvey was a brilliant physician who had astonished his professors at medical
school. Almost straight out of university, he was hired as chief physician at St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, where he provided medical treatment to the poor for
free.
Harvey’s reputation grew rapidly, and he was chosen to deliver an ongoing series of
public lectures to explain anatomy and medicine to the general public. Soon, wealthy
people, including members of the nobility, were asking him to be their doctor. He even
wound up becoming the personal physician to the King of England!