Michael Servetus and the Discovery of the Lesser Circulation *

I am grateful to the members of the Beaumont Medical Club for their kindness in inviting me to give the Carmalt Lecture on a historical theme. As a surgeon I could repeat what the French painter Ingres used to say to the people who praised him for his pictures: "I am not interested in painting; what I really like is to play the violin." My violin, that is, my source of relaxation and rest, is history, and in particular, medical history. You will not be surprised to know that I have concentrated my interest on Servetus, a medical personality who, apart from his merits, was a countryman of mine. My purpose today is to bring to your notice the results of some studies I made of the part that Servetus played in the discovery of the pulmonary circulation and on the chronological order in which the general idea was carried to Padua and hence to William Harvey. Michael Servetus, Miguel Serveto, or Miquel Servet, are the three variants of his name according to whether it is written in Latin, in its Spanish adaptation, or in its original Catalan form. In 1547, Martin Guerrea mentioned that at the beginning of the century, a Ramon Servet, married to Ana de Urroz, had four children-Catalina, a nun in a convent at Saragossa; Ana, Anton, and Agustina. In a Protocolum written by Martin de Colobar in 1504 we find Anton Servet married to Catalina Conesa, daughter of the noble Pedro Conesa and Beatriu (Qaporta. The couple, Anton Servetus and Catalina Conesa, later had three sons: Michael, the subject of my present address, physician; Peter, notary; and John, rector of the church of Polinlino. Michael Servetus was born in 151 1 in a little village situated in the region bounded by the Pyrenees to the North, the river Ebro to the South between the towns of Lleida (or Lerida in modern Spanish) to the East, and Barbastro to the West. At the time of Michael's birth this village was called Vilanova de Xixena-Villanueva de Sigena now in Spanish. This village had been founded by the Barcelonian Count Ramon Berenguer IV and his wife Petronila of Aragon in the middle