- This edition includes the following editor's contextual introduction: William Harvey and the study of blood circulation
First published in 1628, “On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals” (
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus) is the best-known work of the physician William Harvey, which established the circulation of blood throughout the body.
“On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals” is a landmark in the history of physiology, with Harvey combining observations, experiments, measurements, and hypotheses in an extraordinary fashion to arrive at his doctrine. His work is a model of its kind and had an immediate and far-reaching influence on Harvey's contemporaries.
In his study, Harvey investigated the effect of ligatures on blood flow. The book also argued that blood was pumped around the body in a "
double circulation", where after being returned to the heart, it is recirculated in a closed system to the lungs and back to the heart, where it is returned to the main circulation.
“On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals” was originally published in Latin. It was translated into English by Robert Willis (1799-1878) and published in 1847 by the Sydenham Society.
