The Galenic Tradition: William Harvey - Essay Example

He also discovered the pulmonary circulation and the systemic circulation. He discovered that while the heart pumps blood through the arteries, that flow into the body, while the veins carried impure blood back to the heart. He experimented upon this by pushing in blood in the opposite direction, which certainly did not happen. En route to discovering and letting the world know about his great discovery, Harvey did stumble upon a great many stones, mainly critics! Harvey's ideas were eventually accepted during his lifetime.

His work was attacked, notably by Jean Riolan in Opuscula anatomica (1649) which forced Harvey to defend himself in Exercitatio anatomica de circulations  (also 1649) where he argued that Riolan's position was contrary to all observational evidence. [www.wikipedia.com]Harvey lived in a time when science was gaining importance. However, not much knowledge about the circulatory system was known. It was a time when a number of inventions and discoveries took place and propelled more inventions and observations.

The Galenic tradition that was more prevalent in that time did not allow the periodic rise of Harvey's discovery; which, nonetheless gained momentum later on.