Diary of William Harvey

English (translation)Original French

Harvey, the 17th-century English physician and anatomist who was one of the first to discover blood circulation, comes to life in this absorbing work. The late Hamburger ( Discovering the Individual ) offers an intimate portrait of Harvey and lets his subject tell his story in the form of a diary written during Harvey's later years. Based on historical research but delivered with an element of poetic license (as when Harvey quotes a "Chinese saying" that comes from Eugene Ionesco), this diary shows us a brilliant yet very human figure who was actively engaged with the remarkable events and personalities of his era. A staunch royalist (a matter more of "fidelity of heart" than politics), he is physician to King James I and King Charles I. He is friends with Thomas Hobbes, meets Ben Jonsonstet and accompanies Inigo Jones to Stonehenge to figure out who built it. He expresses fierce annoyance at those who reject his findings on circulation because scientific evidence can demonstrate their value, and yet he mentions no qualms about the efficacy of the healing "touch" King Charles offers to those with scrofula. Inconsistencies and all, Harvey is worth knowing.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"I see nothing but fascination in combining medicine and philosophy, in mixing science with reflections upon the world," the fictionalized diarist William Harvey writes, providing ample evidence of the truth of his statement. Hamburger, the late pioneer in organ transplantation, former president of the French Academy of Sciences, and author of numerous books on philosophy and literature, is a thoughtful and meticulous guide to the life and times of Harvey, whose 17th-century treatise on the circulation of blood helped liberate medicine from the dogmas of Aristotle and Galen. Hamburger's reflections on scientific discovery, political turmoil, and human folly are absorbing and elegantly translated. As a work of imagination, however, The Diary is less successful. Methodically discussing every notable intellectual and significant event of his era, Harvey's voice never achieves authenticity. Still, the book is highly recommended to serious readers of historical fiction and histories of medicine.
- Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.