Joan D'Alos and the Doctrine of the Circulation of the Blood

The publication in 1628 of Harvey's Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis, was ignored by most of the faculties in the medical schools. Its experimental approach disturbed a world subdued by dogmatic medicine, and very few men realized the importance of the upheaval that was taking place in man's thinking. The Sorbonne was particularly conservative in this position, revealed by implacable scorn and stubborn opposition to the teaching of the new doctrine; the Spanish medical schools shared in the attack and their most prominent leaders, headed by Matias Garcia, author of Disputationes Anatomticae Ab Harveyo Suscitatoe Motu Cordis Arteriarum et Sanguinis (in folio, 1648), and Andres Piquer, the "Spanish Hypocrates" (1711-1772), turned Valencia, and later Madrid, into very active centers opposing the circulation thesis; Salamanaca, Alcala, and other universities took the same stand. J. J. Izquierdo refers to this opposition in his excellent book, Harvey, Iniciador del Metodo Experimental.' Later, when the circulation of the blood was generally accepted, several Spanish historians claimed predecessors to Harvey. The Medical School in Barcelona may be considered as an exception because of two remarkable men, Francesc Morello and Joan d'Alos. Morello is the author of Medicinale Patrocinium in Sanguinis Circulationem (1678), a brief book containing a good description and defense of the circulation thesis. Joan d'Alos i Serradora, son of Jaume and Joana, Protophysician of the Princedom of Catalunya and Earldoms of Rossello and Cerdanya, is a very interesting figure, active in political and medical circles. Born on April 16, 1617, in Moia, a mountain village about fifty miles north of Barcelona, he married Maria Ferrer in the Cathedral of Barcelona on July 18, 1657. He was elected city alderman in 1666; later, was a captain in the army in the medical corps (1684), and representative in 1690. Catedraitico (Professor) of Prima de Medicina since 1664, he taught anatomy, aphorisms, and pharmacy. Upon his death in Barcelona on March 15, 1695, he was buried in the cemetery of the St. Michael Parish.