Some recently discovered letters of William Harvey, with other miscellanea / by S. Weir Mitchell ; with a bibliography of Harvey's works by Charles Perry Fisher.
- William Harvey
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some recently discovered letters of William Harvey, with other miscellanea / by S. Weir Mitchell ; with a bibliography of Harvey's works by Charles Perry Fisher. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![Harvey. The dark vault, the coffiins of other Harveys and that of the great physician, are well shown in the accom- panying photograph from a drawing made on Sir Benjamin's first visit in 1847, by his son, Mr. Bertram Richardson, and given to me by Sir Benjamin. The latest burial was that of Nelson's Captain, Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, the last male of his race. I made a rubbing of the cofhn plate of William Harvey, which is here reproduced. My comments on the disconnected material I have gathered for the future greater biography of Harvey may have no great value, but I am pleased to have been enabled to print the letters which throw fresh light on a part of Harvey's life. Enough is now known of this very great man to permit of some estimate of his character. Much more has yet to be learned of his early and even his later life, but we may still hope that some of the manuscripts scattered by the Puritan mob have not been destroyed and may yet be recovered, as have been his precious lecture-notes. Even what one may call the setting of his life has unusual interest. The son of a well-to-do yeoman, he lived to become the physician of two kings and to see pass before him a tragic historic drama. Wide travel, the life of courts and friendly association with great nobles, must have influenced the manners of the 3'^eoman's son. Intellectually he was in many ways remarkable, for even in the youth of his brilliant discovery, he had none of the abrupt conclusiveness of youth nor any of the raw haste of our own day. He must slowly and deliberately have [54]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21173370_0068.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
