William Harveys Discoveries and Effects on Society

William Harveys Discoveries and Effects on societyThe Renaissance, which means rebirth, was a cartridge h obsolescenter of much literary and humanistic increment dating from 1350-1600 AD. During this dot, scholars and intellectuals alike began to show interest and respect for the arts, literature, learning and computer architecture again. The humanistic growth of this time refers to the scholars of the rebirth, cognise as Humanists, who put themselves and serviceman at the centre of their world and culture rather than God. The Renaissance originated in northern Italy but eventually took over Europe, with clergymen and bishops moving to Italy to study what was cognize as the New Learning. The invention of the printing press during this time excessively meant that books could be mass produced, quickly and cheaply for the s force start-off time, making them to a wideer extent widely available to humanists and those in the public that could afford such commodities. This dir ect to increased learning in this time, which in turn led to corking scientists and scholars being born who changed the path we look at the world, even today. (colaisteeanna.ie, 2011)William Harvey, aboard Galileo, Kepler and Bacon was a very important individual in the advancement of science in the renaissance period, who is credited today as being iodin of the most influential English physicians in history. He is mostly kn bear for his research into the circulatory system and was the first person to discover and accurately describe how blood was transported without the body by the emotional state. Harvey was known for neer fearing to go beyond what science had accepted in his time and for displace the boundaries of Renaissance science, n forever having any fear to experiment on things that would be conceiveed major taboos at the time. His exploits however would lead to the public and separate physicians to release off his work completely.William was born in Folkstone, K ent, England in the year 1578 to doubting Thomas and mother of nine, Joane Harvey. Williams father, Thomas, was quite a successful merchant who would go on to become the mayor of his town which meant that William lived a quite comfortable purport growing up. As a child and young teen Harvey was taught the classics and Latin, which would after aide him in his ventures to Europe where Latin was widely use for academic work. In 1597, Harvey att stop Gonville and Caius College in the University of Cambridge where he studied and completed a bachelors degree. Upon completing his degree, Harvey thought it best to move on to study medicinal drug in the highly prestigious University of Padua in northern Italy. At the time Italy was known to be one of the great centres of intellectual activity in Europe. It was in Padua that Harvey would go on to study and be tutored under the great and famous surgeon and scientist Hieronymus Fabricius. Fabricius was a dedicated anatomist who was revolution ising medicine in the renaissance period who had discovered that veins in the human body contained valves, although to use of these valves were undiagnosed to him. His beliefs in the kit and boodle of scientists such as Galen were so strong that he didnt want to challenge these views which meant that Fabricius would neer go on to further his studies in this area. Fabricius discovery would later inspire Harvey to further these studies. Harvey would then go on to receive the degree of M.D from the University of Padua in 1602, where on his diploma it was written Harvey had conducted himself so wonderfully well in the examination, and had shown such skill, memory and learning that he had far surpassed even the great hopes which his examiners had formed of him. They decided therefore that he was skilful, expert, and most efficiently qualified both in arts and medicine (Famousscientists.org, 2015). He would then go on to return to England to join and achieve well in his exams at the Royal College of Physicians.During the renaissance period, the scientist and anatomist, Galen, was widely noned as the greatest physician to ever beat lived. Galen believed that the body was make up of bodily liquifieds called humors, these included blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. Galens views were unanimously agreed upon and commonwealth of the time saw these humors in the same way that DNA and genes are viewed in modern science today. For example if soul was optimistic or positive it would suggest, in Galens teachings, that the humor, blood, was the primary bodily fluid to make up said persons body. The same would be applied for soulfulness who was bad tempered who would be thought to be mostly make up of yellow bile. Although these findings were widely accepted, Galen was never able to prove them instantaneously as at the time, dissecting human bodies was forbidden and was widely believed that it would lead to the dissector not going to heaven upon death. It wa s these accepted views that would lead future scientists, such as Fabricius, to not want to challenge Galen or conduct any motley of experiments that would be considered taboo at the time. (World Science Festival, 2014). Although Harvey was very curious and would go on to investigate Fabricius studies further as he was not a believer of this ideology, which meant that he wasnt afraid to conduct experiments such as dissecting and other procedures that would have been considered unthinkable at the time. His practices though, did not come without his critics, who believed in the workings of medieval scientist and anatomist Galen.It would be Harveys eventual rise through the ranks of the college of physicians and his marriage to Elizabeth Browne, fille of the physician to the queen at the time Elizabeth the First, however, that would give Harvey the time and stead needed to conduct his controversial experiments. His marriage into a family of power and his expertness as a fellow physi cian to his newborn father in law would lead to him becoming the physician extraordinary to Queen Elizabeths successor, office James the first. Harvey would demoralise through human dissection to open up arteries and begin to study blood flow and blood like nobody had ever before him. Harveys work was based on a range of experiments and observations, including applying ligatures to mail to compare the flow of blood through arteries and veins and to establish the role of valves and more or less live experimentation on the summations and vessels of fish and snakes. (Underhill, 2015) Harvey also used mathematical data to prove that the blood was not being consumed (Ribatti, 2009). Harvey proceed to experiment until he was able to provide concrete evidence to egress for the public to view.In 1628, at the age of 50, Harvey published his findings in latin under the title Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibusor in English as On the Motion of the Heart and Blood. It provided new evidence on blood circulation for the first time since Galen, who had believed that blood was produced in the liver from food and pumped to the lungs. It has been shown by reason and experiment that blood by the beat of the ventricles flows through the lungs and heart and is pumped to the whole body. There it passes through pores in the flesh into the veins through which it returns from the periphery everywhere to the centre, from the smaller veins into the larger ones, finally coming to the nervure cava and right atrium. (Ribatti, 2009) Harveys findings went completely against the works of Galen which sparked outrage in the scientific connection as Galens work was regarded as untouchable at the time. The medical conjunction grew hostile against Harvey and began to send him threats and insults. Always a believer of his work though, Harvey would never stop trying to defend his findings. Unfortunately this abuse did not end and his practice began to suffer be cause of it. Eventually it forced Harvey into isolation where he lived out his life as a recluse to avoid any excess attention on himself. This wasnt the end for Harvey however as a new multiplication of budding medical students were on the rise, who were ready to disregard obsolete teachings and pursue modern medical studys which Harvey pioneered with his research. Harvey would continue to give lectures to the new genesis of scientists, detailing his methods and findings and who would then go on to use these findings and methods in their own research which would eventually make the works of Harvey mainstream, eventually making him into a more influential scientist than Galen, whose work is still used today. His sceptics outrage ended in 1661, four years after Harveys death, when scientist Marcello Malpighi discovered capillaries which finally gave literal evidence and proved Harveys theory of blood circulation.William Harveys discoveries and their eventual acceptance meant tha t medical practises in general improved greatly during the end of the renaissance period and beyond. His discoveries in the circulatory system and his students further studies into his field allowed for new, more tortuous operations to take place. This had a big effect on heart surgeons as before Harvey, nobody really knew much about the functions of the heart. This allowed for a greater, although still very low survival rate for cardiac patients as new experimental operative methods were used through trial and error. The nigh 100 years would prove vital for advancements in cardiac link research as followers and accepters of Harveys work would lead major breakthroughs that have lead up to where modern heart and circulatory surgery is today.To conclude, William Harvey was a very influential scientist who lived in a time and culture where people outright believed the views of medieval medicine. A time where the medical community was loth to challenge the views of the greats such a s Galen. Harvey showed the scientific community that no social occasion what your views or stance on a particular science is, that if you pass off an open mind you may just be proven wrongly in the end. William Harvey was the landmark scientist of modern medicine who paved the way for what we consider modern medicine to be today. Harvey was the inspiration for a whole generation of anatomists and physicians in his time and for future centuries to come. Who to this day is used as the bench mark for how influential a physician can be. Thanks to Harveys willingness to abandon old wisdom and observe and test for himself, we have our modern understanding of physiology. (www.discoveriesinmedicine.com , 2006)ReferencesHarvey, william first, blood, body, Harveys contribution, Harvey publishes his findings (2006) ready(prenominal) at http//www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/General-Information-and-Biographies/Harvey-William.html.Ribatti, D. (2009). William Harvey and the discovery of the cir culation of the blood. online Available at https//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776239/Underhill, S. (2015) 6.2 circulation Galen and Harvey. Available at https//natureofscienceib.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/6-2-circulation-galen-and-harvey/World Science Festival (2014) Misunderstood geniuses William Harvey. Available at https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NOU4McjtXscolaisteeanna.ie. (2011). The Renaissance. online Available at http//colaisteeanna.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/History-Revision-The-Renaissance.pdfFamousscientists.org. (2015). William Harvey Biography, Facts and Pictures. online Available at https//www.famousscientists.org/william-harvey/