Exercitationes anatomicae, de motu cordis & sanguinis circulatione [...].

12mo: [32]-285-[19] pp. (toned).

Contemp. overl. vellum, flat spine with gilt morocco label, blue edges. Very good copy.

Enlarged Latin edition of a milestone in medicine (1st Frankfurt 1628). Harvey (1578-1657), physician, anatomist, physiologist and embryologist, studied at Cambridge before gaining his doctorate at the University of Padua. He was appointed physician to James I, and later to Charles I. "Harvey proved experimentally that in animals the blood is impelled in a circle by the beat of the heart, passing from arteries to veins through the pores (i.e., the capillaries seen by Malpighi with the microscope in 1660)" (Garrison-Morton). Ill. with an engr. front. and 2 full-page engr. pl. (pp. 126-127).
Ref. Keynes 9. - Krivatsy 5334. - Wellcome III:219. - STCN.
Prov. Contemp. ms. entry on front flyleaf. - Old name on title.
Bound with: 1. De Back, Jacobus - Dissertatio de corde [...] [3rd ed.]. Ibid., 1660. 252-[24] pp. Supporting treatise of Harvey’s views by the Dutch physician De Back (1594-1658). Ref. STCN. - Krivatsy 5334. - Cp. Wellcome II:81. - 2. Harvey, William - Exercitationes de generatione animalium. Quibus accedunt quaedam de partu, de membranis ac humoribus uteri & de conceptione. Amsterdam, J. van Ravestein, 1662. [28]-388-[3] pp. The "De generatione" represents the most significant development in embryology since Aristotle and is the first to challenge the prevalent theory of preformation of the foetus. Harvey maintained that all animals develop from eggs, basing his belief on his own observations of all aspects of reproduction in a large number of ovipara and vivipara, with particular reference to domestic fowls and deer. Although subsequent research has undermined many of his claims, his views nonetheless constituted a considerable advance over his contemporaries, and his emphasis on the egg instigated the long search which eventually led in 1827 to Baer’s discovery of the mammalian ovum.The additional chapter on midwifery was the 1st treatise on that subject by an Englishman. Engr. title. Ref. STCN. - Not in Krivatsy, Wellcome. - 3. Orchamus, Janus [= Johannes Vorst] - De generatione animantium conjectura, observationi cuidam Harveanae [...] submissa. Berlin, G. Schultze, 1667. 58-[1] pp. Discussion by the Lutheran theologian Vorst (1623-1676) of Harvey’s work on human reproduction. Woodcut mark on title. Ref. VD17 12:170994V. - Krivatsy 12483. - Not in Wellcome.