1 janv. 1628 - William Harvey: Circulation of the Blood

Description:

Royal physician William Harvey showed how blood circulated around the body. Before his discoveries, doctors believed Galen's idea that blood was continuously manufactured in the liver and lungs to replace blood that had been consumed by the body. Purple 'nutrition-carrying' blood was created in the liver and carried through the veins, and red 'life-giving' blood was created in the lungs and carried through the arteries. Harvey dissected humans and showed that blood circulated around the body, rather than being created and consumed, with the heart acting as a pump which blood was carried away from by the arteries and to by the veins.
In 1628, he published his book An Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, containing facts and ideas about the blood and the inaccuracies of Galen's ideas. While his research was a major breakthrough in anatomy, changing how people understood the human body, it didn't have an impact on diagnosis and treatment until much later on, as doctors did not believe in his ideas, blood transfusions were rarely successful, and bloodletting was still common practice.

Ajouté au bande de temps:

Date: