HARVEY, WILLIAM. 1578-1657.


Anatomical Exercitations, concerning the Generation of Living Creatures. London: James Young for Octavian Pulleyn, 1653. 8vo (164 x 104 mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece of Harvey by William Faithorne, errata leaf at end. Contemporary calf, rebacked. Some light browning and staining a few repaired tears. Provenance: John Pulford (early signature on title). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH with the often lacking portrait of the author. "Harvey considered this to be the culminating work of his life, and more significant than de Motu Cordis. ... Harvey was among the first to disbelieve the erroneous doctrine of the 'preformation' of the foetus; he maintained that the organism derives from the ovum by the gradual building up and aggregation of its parts. The chapter on midwifery in this book is the first work on that subject to be written by an Englishman" (Garrison-Morton 467, 1651 edition in Latin). Keynes 43; Russell 384; Wing H-1083.