HARVEY, WILLIAM. 1578-1657.


Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione sanguinis. Cambridge: Roger Daniels, 1649. 12mo (110 x 61mm). Errata leaves at end. Modern calf antique. Tiny rust hole affecting a few leaves. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING OF HARVEY'S RAREST WORK. The book was also published in 1649 by Arnold Leers of Rotterdam. "In this work Harvey first described the circulation of blood through the coronary arteries. Harvey also described experiments that he made to provide further support to his theory of the circulation. Published simultaneously by Daniel in Cambridge and Arnold Leers in Rotterdam" (Garrison-Morton). "The two treatises which form De Circulatione Sanguinis have for too long been considered as merely an appendix to De Motu Cordis. They are far more important than that. The First Letter is a direct criticism of Encheridium. It is not a general discussion of the circulation but treats only the points raised by Riolan. The greater part of the Second Letter is a restatement of Harvey's hypothesis concerning the circulation of the blood supported by further experimental proof, and for this reason it is different in character from the first. It is concerned to affirm a truth and prove its validity by arguments drawn from experimental evidence not, as in the case of the First Letter, to deny a falsity. The argument is not as tightly worked out as in De Motu Cordis but weaves around the theme of the movement of the blood in the arteries and veins and its immediate cause and manner. The points discussed are chosen to answer specific criticisms or to refute alternative notions" (Keynes, pp 73-74). The appreciation of this work has grown during the 20th century because it describes for the first time the circulation of blood through the coronary arteries. Harvey's discovery of the coronary circulation is a milestone, especially in view of the growing significance during the 20th century of coronary artery disease. "The most learned man in this place might have added the third circulation, which is a very short one, one out of the left ventricle into the right, drawing about a part of the blood through the coronall arteries and veins, by its branches, which are distributed about the bodie, walls, and septum of the heart" (translated by Whitteridge, 1989, p 186). The first title page of the Cambridge edition was canceled (no examples are known), and the substituted title-page is found in two states. In the first state has a word erased from the imprint. VERY RARE. The Cambridge printing is so rare, Keynes notes, that a previous Harvey bibliographer doubted its existence. According to American Book Prices Current only 2 copies sold at auction in more than 40 years. ESTC R21044; Garrison-Morton 10658; The Grolier Club Collects, New York, 2002, p 154 (this copy exhibited): Keynes, Harvey, 30; Russell 371; Wellcome III, p 219; Wing H-1087.