How William Harvey Demonstrated Intellectual Honesty in His Discovery of Blood Circulation

The bio-medical model of ill health has been at the forefront of western medicine since the end of the eighteenth century and grew stronger with the progress in modern science. This model underpinned the medical training of doctors. Traditionally medicine had relied on folk remedies passed down from generations and ill health was surrounded in superstition and religious lore with sin and evil spirits as the culprit and root of ill health. The emergence of scientific thinking questioned the traditional religious view of the world and is linked to the progress in medical practice and the rise of the biomedical model. Social and historical events and circumstances were an important factor in its development as explanations about disease

In his book The Great Influenza, author John M. Barry writes about his opinion on the characteristics of scientists and their research. He believes that science is full of uncertainty and scientists must be able to deal comfortably with the unknown, as well as the fact that scientists must be creative and accept that their own beliefs can be easily broken by their own research. He accomplishes this by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as allusions, references to relatable examples, and a “matter of fact”, harsh tone.

William Harvey published the book called “An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals” which was officially published a fair time after the other two’s books. He proved that the heart acts as a pump by recirculating the blood, and showed that the blood flows around the body and is carried away by the arteries and is carried back into the heart by the veins. This had a limited impact because likewise to Vesalius, it did not make anyone healthier at the time, and it made more of a long term impact on medicine. He had not found a way to practically cure people because he had just made a book to further people’s knowledge on how the body works. Although his book is very useful for us nowadays, at the time people would not know how to approach it, and really wouldn’t make much of an impact on the people’s health.

Before the 18th century, medicine had not advanced beyond the practices of bloodletting and balancing the four humors of the body. These medical practices were not effective and did more harm than good. It was not until the Scientific Revolution that physicians slowly started to learn more about the human body and how functions. The numerous advancements of medicine in the 18th century and resulting benefits to European Society are reflected in the lack of medical practices before the 1700s, the creation of the smallpox vaccine, and improved techniques.

In this essay I will be looking at the different aspects of medicine in the Middle Ages and accessing how the church helped or hindered their development. As there was a lot of unrest at the start of the middle Ages the church is important because it preserved a lot of things. It also provided a way of life, so it was very influential.

This book encouraged further study of human anatomy by various physicians throughout the Scientific Revolution. Ambrose Paré was an influential French physician in the early 1540s. He studied ways to prevent infections more effectively. Also, Paré created new techniques for surgery, began the use of artificial limbs, and invented several medical tools. In the early 1600s the circulatory system was studied for the first time by William Harvey, an English scholar.

Wells’ articles… is whether ordinary people should be allowed to know the facts and should discuss their implications” (Woolf 498). This excerpt is a prime example of the division between science and religion that was occurring throughout the time period within this book was written. Many people began to support Wells in his beliefs of scientific principles such as Darwinism. However, there were those who strongly dejected it and even became hostile that those scientific ideas were available to the public. The reason the ideas were so easily accessible were because of literary interpretation in controversial books such as The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Science plays an integral role in the development and findings of many great things that we can benefit from. Integrity along with a specific set of moral standards must always be followed in order to ensure the end result enables a healthy environment for all whom wish to benefit from such studies. Integrity must always play and be the most essential key role in scientific research. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1831) and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) one is able to conclude that integrity must be maintained while conducting scientific research as a lack of can result in the creation of monsters.

has to work harder pumping blood to the rest of the body. Blood in our

In the essay “William Harvey: A Life in Circulation” by Thomas Wright, Wright indicates that William Harvey’s theory of the circulation of blood gave rise to controversies in Europe. Harvey was a well-known anatomist to the medical establishment in Nuremberg, Germany, and an author of a Latin volume titled Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus. The book contains Harvey’s theory which opened doors for acceptance and criticism. Equally important, Harvey had an opportunity to give a lecture regarding his theory at the University of Altdorf.

I am Curtis the scientist I pick for my Writing frame is William Harvey.His theory was heart pump blood through the whole body.William Harvey is correct and why he is correct.

veins to the tissues of the body. These walls do not let out blood but

There have been many advances in the medical field such as; anesthesia, drugs, machines, etc. This has helped the doctors find alternative solutions to problems, and in return has helped them save more lives. In the article “Medicine” by Britannica, “Many new advances in anesthesia, and these in turn depend upon engineers who have devised machines and chemists produced new drugs. Other operations are made possible by new materials, such as the alloys and plastics that are used to make artificial hip and knee joints.” Advances in the medical field have truly helped modern doctors. Without the medicine, machines, technology they have now there’s no way the doctors could have saved the same amount of lives. As Brian Ward, the author of “The Story of Medicine”, states in his book, “Despite opposition, revolutionary scientists and doctors persevered and made some ground breaking discoveries,” (Ward 22). Even though the doctors during the Renaissance had little technology, they still made discoveries that impacted the medical field. The discoveries made by the Renaissance doctors were life saving. However, with the given technology that is commonly found in modern day society doctors are able to impact the medical and scientific fields and by doing so, save more lives than thought possible during the Renaissance. Within the article “Medicine” written by Britannica, it shows the importance of, “Many other developments in modern surgical treatment rest on a firm basis of experimentation, often first in animals but also in humans; among them are Renal dialysis (artificial kidney), arterial bypass operations, embryo implantation, and exchange transfusions.” Although testing on animals is cruel, it shows that modern doctors were not just experimenting on people. The modern doctors had a thought process to reduce the amount of deaths due to

William Harvey was a distinguished physician of the seventeenth century. Harvey was educated by some of the great scientists of his time and was highly knowledgeable of the scientist theories preceding his time. Harvey was greatly intrigued by the views of the ancient Aristotle and developed a number of his own ideas based on Aristotle’s theories. It was from Aristotle’s theory of the primacy of blood that allowed Harvey to make breakthroughs about circulation and generation of animals. His advancements greatly enhanced the study of anatomy. Harvey also revolutionized the means by which science was performed through the use of innovative, investigational techniques. William Harvey became a

Johann Bernoulli’s two sons, which were good friends of Leonhard Euler, had convinced him to study physiology. The application of his advancement in mathematics made it much easier to comprehend. He was able to attend the lectures of the utmost elite professors at the University of Basel. After much research in the field of physiology, he decided