While Da Vinci drew but did not publish
Harvey cut and cut and dissected more
Till he achieved what he set to accomplish
Heart’s motion, De Motu Cordis, his law
In Latin, for doctors to read and learn
Of the forces produced in four chambers
And the pulses of blood they could discern
In arteries and veins and the members
Of the network of vessels exquisite
Through the body from fingers to both feet
Valves in those veins of legs that would permit
Free flow of blood back to the heart, so neat
He studied Versalius and Fabricius
Then left his discoveries for all of us
Backstory
William Harvey, an Englishman, lived more than a century after da Vinci. It is not clear just how much the former knew of the latter, and although they both derided the influence of Galen, and although Harvey gained much of his experience in Padua, Italy, working with Fabricius in the famed Teatro Anatomico, he rarely referred to, or acknowledged da Vinci. This was no doubt partly due to the lack of formal anatomical or medical training of da Vinci, Harvey himself being a graduate of the Kings School, Canterbury and Cambridge University as well as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
Harvey carried out a tremendous amount of work on animals such as pigs, sheep and non-human primates, with intricate measurements of blood volumes, anatomical sizes and so on, and worked on blood flow within vein valves and in capillary anastomoses between arteries and veins. Harvey died in 1657 at the age of 79. It is often claimed that he was the originator of scientific methods in medical research.
