William Harvey Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from The Works of William Harvey: Physician to the King, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College of Physicians When, at the instance of the governing body of the Sydenham Society, I undertook to edit the Works of the immortal Discoverer of the Circulation of the Blood, in English, I believed that the chief of these Works were already extant in our language, in such a shape as would make little more from an editor necessary than a careful revision of the text. I had unwarily adopted the idea, very gratuitously originated by Aubrey, that Harvey was what is called an indifferent scholar, and that the English versions of his writings were the proper originals, the Latin versions the translations. Having access to the handsome edition of Harvey's Works in Latin, revised by Drs. Lawrence and Mark Akenside, and published by the College of Physicians in 1766, I had always referred to that when the course of my studies led me to consult Harvey. Of the English versions, or any other edition, I knew little or nothing. On proceeding to my new duty of English editor, however, I immediately saw that the masterwork of Harvey on the Motions of the Heart and Blood, far from having the character of an originally English writing, must have been rendered into English by one but little conversant with the subject, that it was both extremely rebutting in point of style and full of egregious errors, and that nothing short of an entirely new translation could do justice to this admirable treatise, or secure for it, at the present day, the attention it deserved. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.