Chapter VI: Harvey's Later Years

The surrender of Oxford in 1645 marks the period of Harvey's severance from the Court and of his practical retirement from public life. He was now 68; a martyr to gout, childless, and suffering under a series of heavy bereavements, he can have had but little heart to re-enter upon an active professional life in London. His twin brothers Matthew and Michael died in 1643. John, his second brother, died in 1645. His wife who was alive in this year, must have died shortly afterwards, or she would probably have accompanied him to Oxford. Such a series of shocks would act prejudicially upon his affectionate nature, and would still further unfit him to pursue the harassing cares of his profession. His mind, always philosophical and reflective rather than empirical, was now allowed to follow its bent to the uttermost, and his time was employed in putting into shape his treatise upon Development.

Harvey returned to London after the surrender of Oxford, and one of his first thoughts was to send to Charles Scarborough, who had continued with the Royal army, the message--"Prithee leave off thy gunning and stay here. I will bring thee into practice." And well he kept his word, for on the 8th of October, 1649, Dr. Scarborough was elected by the Company of Barber Surgeons of London reader of the anatomical lectures. "He was the first," says Wood, "that introduced geometrical and mechanical speculations into Anatomy, and applied them in all his learned conversation, as more particularly in his famous lectures upon the muscles of the human body for sixteen or seventeen years together in the public theatre at Surgeons' Hall, which were read by him with infinite applause and admiration of all sorts of learned men in the great City. Afterwards he became a most learned and incomparable anatomist, a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1650, principal physician to King Charles II. (from whom he received the honour of knighthood, August 15, 1669), and to His Royal Highness James, his brother, while Duke of York and when King, Physician to the Tower of London, and afterwards to King William III." His friendship with Harvey, commenced at Oxford, continued unabated to the end of his patron's life; and when on July 28, 1656, Harvey presented to the College of Physicians the title-deeds of his paternal estate in Kent and resigned his Lumleian lectureship, the office was transferred to Charles Scarborough. In his will, too, Harvey makes affectionate mention of his friend, and bequeaths to him his surgical instruments and his velvet gown, so that literally as well as metaphorically Harvey's mantle fell upon Sir Charles Scarborough, and he nobly sustained the charge, great as it was.

The bond of friendship which had always marked the members of the Harvey family now comes into striking relief. The eldest brother, whose goods had been destroyed at Whitehall and scattered at Oxford, was a welcome guest for the rest of his life in the houses of his younger brothers. He appears to have lived chiefly at Cockaine House, which was probably situated in Broad Street, for it afterwards became the Excise Office. It was the town house of his brother Eliab, who also lived either at Roehampton or at Rolls Park. But sometimes Harvey spent a part of his time with Daniel in the suburban village of Lambeth, or at Combe, near Croydon in Surrey. Some curious details of his habits at this time have been handed down.

Aubrey says: "He was much and often troubled with the gout, and his way of cure was thus: He would sit with his legs bare, though it were frost, on the leads of Cockaine House, put them into a pail of water till he was almost dead with cold, then betake himself to his stove, and so 'twas gone." "A method of treatment," says Heberden, "which I neither recommend nor propose to others for imitation, although Harvey lived to his eightieth year, and died not so much from disease as from old age." The first coffee-house was opened in London about the year 1652 by Bowman (a coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who put him upon it), but Harvey was wont to drink coffee, which he and his brother Eliab did before coffee-houses were in fashion in London. In his will he makes a special reservation of his "coffy-pot;" his niece, Mary West, and her daughter are to have all his plate except this precious utensil, which, with the residue of his fortune, he evidently desired should descend to his brother Eliab, as a memorial doubtless of the pleasure he had often enjoyed over its contents, for coffee was not yet a common drink. Another coffee-house in London was opened just after the Restoration. It was kept by an old sergeant of Monk's army.

Among some papers at the College of Physicians relating to Harvey, which were collected by Dr. Macmichael, is one in the handwriting of Dr. Heberden, which runs as follows:--

"1761, May 29th.--Mrs. Harvey (great-niece to Dr. Harvey) told me
that the Doctor lived at his brother's at Roehampton the latter
part of his life. That he used to walk out in a morning, combing
his hair in the fields.

"That he was humoursome and would sit down exactly at the time he
had appointed for dinner whether the company was come or not. That
his salt-cellar was always filled with sugar which he used to eat
instead of salt.

"That if the gout was very painful to him in the night he would
rise and put his feet into cold water."

This list of harmless little eccentricities is further enlarged by Aubrey, who says: "He was always very contemplative and was wont to frequent the leads of Cockaine House, which his brother Eliab had bought, having there his several stations in regard to the sun and the wind for the indulgence of his fancy; whilst at the house at Combe in Surrey, he had caves made in the ground in which he delighted in the summer-time to meditate." He also loved darkness, telling Aubrey "that he could then best contemplate." "His thoughts working would many times keep him from sleeping, in which case his way was to rise from his bed and walk about his chamber in his shirt till he was pretty cool and then return to his bed and sleep very comfortably." He was ready at all times to communicate what he knew and to instruct any that were modest and respectful to him, and when Aubrey was starting for Italy "he dictated to me what to see, what company to keep, what books to read, and how to manage my studies--in short, he bid me go to the fountain head and read Aristotle, Cicero, and Avicenna, and did call the Neoteriques" by a foul name.

Dr. Ent has left a striking picture of the old man at Christmas, 1650, nearly a year after the execution of the King. It shows at first a weariness of spirit which we would fain hope was not quite natural to him, like the sadness of age which is so marked a feature in the life-like portrait left by Janssen. Dr. Ent's account is the epistle dedicatory to Harvey's work on the development of animals, and it so clearly shows the man in the fashion as he lived, and as his beloved pupil saw him, that I have not ventured to shorten it. The Epistle is addressed:--

"To the learned and illustrious, the President and Fellows of the
College of Physicians of London.

"Harassed with anxious, and in the end not much availing cares,
about Christmas last, I sought to rid my spirit of the cloud that
oppressed it, by a visit to that great man, the chief honour and
ornament of our College, Dr. William Harvey, then dwelling not far
from the city. I found him, Democritus like, busy with the study
of natural things, his countenance cheerful, his mind serene,
embracing all within its sphere. I forthwith saluted him and asked
if all were well with him? 'How can it be,' said he, 'whilst the
Commonwealth is full of distractions, and I myself am still in the
open sea? And truly,' he continued, 'did I not find solace in my
studies, and a balm for my spirit in the memory of my observations
of former years, I should feel little desire for longer life. But
so it has been, that this life of obscurity, this vacation from
public business, which causes tedium and disgust to so many, has
proved a sovereign remedy to me.'

"I, answering, said, 'I can readily account for this: whilst
most men are learned through others' wits, and under cover of a
different diction and a new arrangement, vaunt themselves on things
that belong to the ancients, thou ever interrogatest Nature herself
concerning her mysteries. And this line of study as it is less
likely to lead into error, so is it also more fertile in enjoyment,
inasmuch as each particular point examined often leads to others
which had not before been surmised. You yourself, I well remember,
informed me once that you had never dissected any animal--and many
and many a one you have examined--but that you discovered something
unexpected, something of which you were formerly uninformed.'

"'It is true,' said he; 'the examination of the bodies of animals
has always been my delight, and I have thought that we might thence
not only obtain an insight into the lighter mysteries of Nature,
but there perceive a kind of image or reflex of the omnipotent
Creator himself. And though much has been made out by the learned
men of former times, I have still thought that much more remained
behind, hidden by the dusky night of nature, uninterrogated:
so that I have oftentimes wondered and even laughed at those
who have fancied that everything had been so consummately and
absolutely investigated by an Aristotle or a Galen or some other
mighty name, that nothing could by any possibility be added to
their knowledge. Nature, however, is the best and most faithful
interpreter of her own secrets; and what she presents, either more
briefly or more obscurely in one department, that she explains
more fully and clearly in another. No one indeed has ever rightly
ascertained the use or function of a part who has not examined its
structure, situation, connections by means of vessels and other
accidents in various animals, and carefully weighed and considered
all he has seen. The ancients, our authorities in science, even
as their knowledge of geography was limited by the boundaries of
Greece, so neither did their knowledge of animals, vegetables,
and other natural objects extend beyond the confines of their
country. But to us the whole earth lies open and the zeal of our
travellers has made us familiar not only with other countries and
the manners and customs of their inhabitants, but also with the
animals, vegetables, and minerals that are met with in each. And
truly there is no nation so barbarous which has not discovered
something for the general good, whether led to it by accident or
compelled by necessity, which had been overlooked by more civilised
communities. But shall we imagine that nothing can accrue to the
wide domains of science from such advantages or that all knowledge
was exhausted by the first ages of the world? If we do, the blame
very certainly attaches to our indolence, nowise to nature.

"'To this there is another evil added. Many persons, wholly without
experience, from the presumed verisimilitude of a previous opinion,
are often led by and by to speak of it boldly, as a matter that is
certainly known; whence it comes, that not only are they themselves
deceived, but that they likewise lead other incautious persons into
error.'

"Discoursing in this manner and touching upon many topics besides
with wonderful fluency and facility, as is his custom, I interposed
by observing 'How free you yourself are from the fault you indicate
all know who are acquainted with you; and this is the reason
wherefore the learned world, who are aware of your unwearied
industry in the study of philosophy, are eagerly looking for your
farther experiments.'

"'And would you be the man,' said Harvey smiling, 'who should
recommend me to quit the peaceful haven where I now pass my life
and launch again upon the faithless sea? You know full well what a
storm my former lucubrations raised. Much better is it oftentimes
to grow wise at home and in private, than by publishing what you
have amassed with infinite labour, to stir up tempests that may rob
you of peace and quiet for the rest of your days.'

"'True,' said I; 'it is the usual reward of virtue to have received
ill for having merited well. But the winds which raised those
storms like the north-western blast, which drowns itself in its own
rain, have only drawn mischief on themselves.'

"Upon this he showed me his 'Exercises on the Generation of
Animals,' a work composed with vast labour and singular care, and
having it in my hands I exclaimed, 'Now have I what I so much
desired, and unless you consent to make this work public, I must
say that you will be wanting both to your own fame and to the
public usefulness. Nor let any fear of farther trouble in the
matter induce you to withhold it longer; I gladly charge myself
with the whole business of correcting the press.'

"Making many difficulties at first, urging among other things
that his work must be held imperfect, as not containing his
investigations on the generation of insects; I nevertheless
prevailed at length, and he said to me, 'I intrust these papers
to your care with full authority either speedily to commit them
to the press, or to suppress them till some future time.' Having
returned him many thanks, I bade him adieu and took my leave,
feeling like another Jason laden with the golden fleece. On
returning home I forthwith proceeded to examine my prize in all its
parts, and could not but wonder with myself that such a treasure
should have lain so long concealed; and that whilst others produce
their trifles and emptiness with much ado, their messes twice,
aye, an hundred times, heated up, our Harvey should set so little
store by his admirable observations. And indeed so often as he
has sent forth any of his discoveries to the world, he has not
comported himself like those who, when they publish, would have
us believe that an oak had spoken, and that they had merited the
rarest honours--a draught of hen's milk at the least. Our Harvey
rather seems as though discovery were natural, a matter of ordinary
business; though he may nevertheless have expended infinite labour
and study on his works. And we have evidence of his singular
candour in this, that he never hostilely attacks any previous
writer, but ever courteously sets down and comments upon the
opinions of each; and indeed he is wont to say that it is argument
of an indifferent cause when it is contended for with violence and
distemper, and that truth scarce wants an advocate.

[_To face page 152._

FACSIMILE OF WILLIAM HARVEY'S HANDWRITING.]

"It would have been easy for our illustrious colleague to have
woven the whole of this web from materials of his own; but to
escape the charge of envy he has rather chosen to take Aristotle
and Fabricius of Aquapendente as his guides, and to appear as
contributing but his portion to the general fabric. Of him whose
virtue, candour, and genius are so well known to you all I shall
say no more, lest I should seem to praise to his face one whose
singular worth has exalted him beyond the reach of all praise.
Of myself I shall only say that I have done no more than perform
the midwife's office in this business, ushering into the light
this product of our colleague's genius as you see it, consummate
and complete, but long delayed and fearing perchance some envious
blast; in other words, I have overlooked the press; and as our
author writes a hand which no one without practice can easily
read[8] (a thing that is common among our men of letters), I have
taken some pains to prevent the printer committing any very grave
blunders through this--a point which I observe not to have been
sufficiently attended to in the small work[9] of his which lately
appeared. Here then, my learned friends, you have the cause of
my addressing you at this time, viz., that you may know that our
Harvey presents an offering to the benefit of the republic of
letters, to your honour, to his own eternal fame.

"Farewell, and prosper
"GEORGE ENT."

This account brings home to us the charm of Harvey's personality. Beloved by his family and honoured by the College of Physicians, the old man went to his grave amidst the genuine grief of all who knew him. The publication of his essay on Development in 1651 was almost his last literary effort. He wrote a few letters to different friends abroad which show that his mind was still actively engaged upon the problem of the circulation of the blood, but nothing more of importance appeared from his pen. His love for the College of Physicians remained unabated, and he gave proof of it in a most practical manner. At an extraordinary Comitia held July 4, 1651, Dr. Prujean, the President, read a written paper to the assembled Fellows which contained the following proposition: "If I can procure one that will build a library and a repository for simples and rarities, such a one as shall be suitable and honourable to the College, will you assent to have it done or no, and give me leave and such others as I shall desire to be the designers and overlookers of the work both for conveniency and ornament?" This offer from an anonymous donor was too handsome to meet with other than immediate acceptance, and as the Annals of the College express it, "super hac re prompté gratéque itum est ab omnibus in suffragia" [the proposition was instantly and thankfully agreed to by the votes of all present]. The building proceeded apace, but there is no doubt that the name of the benefactor became known, for on December 22, 1652, and before it was completed, the College voted that a statue of Harvey should be placed in their hall which then occupied a site in Amen Corner. It was accordingly erected there with an inscription upon the pedestal which ran:--

GULIELMO HARVEIO
Viro monumentis suis immortali
Hoc insuper Collegium Medicorum Londinense
posuit,
Qui enim sanguini motum
ut et
Animalibus ortum dedit,
Meruit esse
Stator perpetuus.

It represented Harvey in the cap and gown of his degree, and though it perished in the Great Fire of London in 1666, it was not replaced when the College was rebuilt on or near its old site nor in the more recent building in Pall Mall.

Harvey's building was a noble example of Roman architecture (of rustic work with Corinthian pilasters). It stood close to the site now occupied by Stationers' Hall, and consisted of two stories, a great parlour with a kind of convocation house for the Fellows to meet in below and a library above. This inscription was engraved upon the frieze outside the building in letters three inches long: "Suasu et cura Fran. Prujeani, Praesidis et Edmundi Smith, elect: inchoata et perfecta est haec fabrica An. Mdcliii" (This building was begun and finished in the year 1653, at the suggestion and under the eye of Francis Prujean, the President, and Edmund Smith, an Elect). Harvey therefore with characteristic modesty refrained from taking any share in the praise; perhaps he was wise. The building is destroyed and forgotten, Smith's name has perished, Prujean's is only remembered as that of a square in the Old Bailey, but Harvey's memory remains and needs neither bricks and mortar, nor pictures, nor a statue to perpetuate it.

Harvey not only paid for the building but he furnished its library with books, amongst which were treatises on geometry, geography, astronomy, music, optics, natural history, and travels, in addition to those upon medical subjects. It was to be open on Fridays from two till five o'clock in summer, but only till four in winter; during all meetings of the College and whenever the librarian, being at leisure, should choose to be present; but no books were allowed to be taken out. The Museum contained numerous objects of curiosity and a variety of surgical instruments. The doors of the buildings were formally opened on February 2, 1653, when Harvey received the President and the Fellows at a sumptuous entertainment, and afterwards addressed a speech to them in which he made over to the College the title-deeds and his whole interest in the structure and its contents.

The College gave a fresh proof of its gratitude by choosing Harvey unanimously as its President when Dr. Prujean's term of office came to an end on Michaelmas Day, 1654. As he was absent when the election took place, the Comitia was prorogued until the next day, and Dr. Alston and Dr. Hamey, two of the Elects, were asked to wait upon him to tell him of the honour his colleagues had done themselves and him, and to say that they awaited his answer.

Every act of Harvey's public life that has come down to us is marked, as Dr. Willis very properly observes, not merely by propriety, but by grace. He attended the Comitia or assembly of the College next day, thanked his colleagues for the distinguished honour of which they had thought him worthy--the honour, as he said, of filling the foremost place amongst the physicians of England; but the concerns of the College, he proceeded, were too weighty to be entrusted to one who, like himself, was laden with years and infirm in health; and if he might be acquitted of arrogance in presuming to offer advice in such circumstances, he would say that the College could not do better than reinstate in the authority which he had just laid down their late President, Dr. Prujean, under whose prudent management and fostering care the affairs of the College had greatly prospered. This disinterested counsel had a fitting response, and Harvey's advice being adopted by general consent, Dr. Prujean was forthwith re-elected President. His first act was to nominate Harvey one of the Consilarii--an honourable office which he did not refuse to accept, and to which he was reappointed in 1655 and 1656.

That Harvey's complaint of age with its attendant infirmities was no mere figure of speech may be gathered from his letters written about this time. Thus he tells Dr. Horst, the principal physician at Hesse Darmstadt, on the 1st of February, 1654-1655: "I am much pleased to find that in spite of the long time that has passed, and the distance that separates us, you have not yet lost me from your memory, and I could wish that it lay in my power to answer all your inquiries. But indeed my age does not permit me to have this pleasure, for I am not only far stricken in years, but am afflicted with more and more indifferent health." And writing again to Dr. Horst five months later he says: "Advanced age, which unfits us for the investigation of novel subtleties, and the mind which inclines to repose after the fatigues of lengthened labours, prevent me from mixing myself up with the investigation of these new and difficult questions; so far am I from courting the office of umpire in this dispute [about the digestion and absorption of the food] that I send you the substance of what I had formerly written about it."

Harvey appears to have devoted much of his time in his later years to a study of general literature, which must always have had many attractions to his cultivated mind--a study which is indeed absolutely necessary as a relaxation to one whose mind is bent upon the solution of obscure scientific problems if he desires to make his results intelligible. Writing to Nardi on the 30th of November, 1653, to thank him for a commentary on Lucretius' account of the plague, he goes on to say, "Nor need you plead in excuse your advanced life. I myself, though verging on my eightieth year and sorely failed in bodily health, nevertheless feel my mind still vigorous, so that I continue to give myself up to studies of this kind, especially connected with the sacred things of Apollo, for I do indeed rejoice to see learned men everywhere illustrating the republic of letters." It would seem too as if he had gained some reputation as a judge of general literature, for Howell in his familiar letters writes to him:--

"To Dr. Harvey, at St. Lawrence Pountney.

"SIR,--I remember well you pleased not only to pass a favourable
censure but gave a high character of the first part of 'Dodona's
Grove,' which makes this second to come and wait on you, which, I
dare say, for variety and fancy, is nothing inferior to the first.
It continueth an historical account of the occurrences of the times
in an allegorical way, under the shadow of trees; and I believe it
omits not any material passage which happened as far as it goes.
If you please to spend some of the parings of your time and fetch
a walk in this Grove, you may haply find therein some recreation.
And if it be true what the Ancients write of some trees, that they
are fatidical, these come to foretell, at least to wish you, as
the season invites me, a good New Year, according to the Italian
compliment, Buon principio, miglior mezzo, ed ottimo fine. With
these wishes of happiness in all the three degrees of comparison,

"I rest, Your devoted Servant,
"J. H.

"LOND. _2 Jan._"

As a rule it is almost impossible to fix the dates of the "Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ," but the first part of "Dodona's Grove" was issued in 1640, and the second part in 1650, so that the letter was probably written in 1651. Even if the letters were never really sent to those to whom they are addressed, Howell selected his apparent correspondents with such care that he would not have addressed Harvey in this manner unless he had been credited with some skill as a critic of general literature. This, too, is borne out in another letter to Nardi on October 25, 1655, in which he says that he is used to solace his declining years and to refresh his understanding, jaded with the trifles of everyday life, by reading the best works. Shortly before he died he was engaged in reading Oughtred's "Clavis Mathematica," and in working out the problems. The book was no doubt brought under his notice by Charles Scarborough, who with Seth Ward was the first to read it with his pupils at Cambridge, where it long remained a favourite textbook. When Scarborough and Ward were young, they once made a journey to see Oughtred, an old Etonian, "who was then living at Albury, in Surrey, to be informed of many things in his 'Clavis Mathematica,' which seemed at that time very obscure to them. Mr. Oughtred treated them with great humanity, being very much pleased to see such ingenious young men," says Anthony Wood, who tells the story, "apply themselves to those studies, and in a short time he sent them away well satisfied in their desires."

Harvey still retained his Lumleian lectureship, the duties of which he conscientiously discharged to the last. His life, says Dr. Munk, already prolonged beyond the span allotted to man, and his waning powers yet further broken by repeated and severe attacks of illness, warned him of his approaching end. He had lived to see his grand discovery of the circulation of the blood universally accepted and inculcated as a canon in most of the medical schools of Europe; and he is said by Hobbes to have been "the only one that conquered envy in his lifetime and saw his new doctrine everywhere established." Harvey now prepared for the great change awaiting him, and on July 28, 1656, resigned his lectureship, took his leave of the College, and in so doing manifested the same zeal for its prosperity as had marked the whole of his former life. On this occasion he put the crowning act to his munificence by giving to the College in perpetuity his patrimonial estate at Burmarsh in Kent, then valued at £56 a year. The particular purposes of this donation were the institution of an annual feast, at which a Latin oration should be spoken in commemoration of the benefactors of the College, a gratuity for the orator, and a provision for the keeper of his library and museum. All this attention to perpetuate a spirit of concord and social friendship among his brethren, was in full accordance with Harvey's benevolent and liberal sentiments.

The last of his letters which has been preserved is addressed to John Vlackveld, physician at Haarlem, who had sent him an interesting specimen. The letter is a characteristic one. It runs:--

"LEARNED SIR,--Your much esteemed letter reached me safely, in
which you not only exhibit your kind consideration of me, but
display a singular zeal in the cultivation of our art.

"It is even so. Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display
her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows traces of her
workings apart from the beaten path; nor is there any better way to
advance the proper practice of medicine than to give our minds to
the discovery of the usual law of nature, by careful investigation
of cases of rarer forms of disease. For it has been found in almost
all things, that what they contain of useful or of applicable, is
hardly perceived unless we are deprived of them, or they become
deranged in some way. The case of the plasterer to which you refer
is indeed a curious one and might supply a text for a lengthened
commentary by way of illustration. But it is in vain that you
apply the spur to urge me, at my present age, not mature merely
but declining, to gird myself for any new investigation; for I
now consider myself entitled to my discharge from duty. It will,
however, always be a pleasant sight to see distinguished men like
yourself engaged in this honourable arena. Farewell, most learned
sir, and whatever you do, still love

"Yours, most respectfully,
"WILLIAM HARVEY.

"LONDON, _April 24, 1657_."