William Harvey
1578 – 1657 English physician
The physician who discovered the circulation of the blood.
- Religion
- Anglican, as standard; his method was strictly empirical.
- Affiliations
- Physician to English kings; Fellow of the College of Physicians. No secret society.
Harvey showed through experiment and dissection that the heart pumps blood in a continuous circuit around the body. This overturned more than a thousand years of Galenic doctrine. His work is a landmark in the rise of experimental physiology.