Dogma and experiment in Harvey's time.

Although William Harvey is usually remembered for his discovery of the circulation of the blood, this is not the only reason for choosing him as the pivot of this lecture: it is also his attitude to truth and knowledge which well exemplifies the spirit of his age, and this spirit is more important than any single discovery, however significant. Harvey was born towards the end of the 16th century (in 1578) and died at the age of 79 in 1657. During the 16th and 17th centuries there were great changes in outlook which transformed the whole complicated structure of medixval thought to modernism. To appreciate the nature of this change and the spirit of the times in which Harvey lived, it is necessary to develop at least an outline picture of the attitude of medixval man to truth and knowledge for these ideas existed into Harvey's time and in some respects well beyond it.