(In certain versions of this etext [in certain browsers]clicking on this symbol (etext transcriber's note) |
,or directly on the image,will bring up a larger version of the illustration.)PORTRAITS
OF
DR. WILLIAM HARVEY
PUBLISHED FOR THE HISTORICAL SECTION
OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE
BY
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY
1913
OXFORD
PLATES AND LETTERPRESS
PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY HORACE HART
PREFACE
THE Council of the Royal Society of Medicine determined in 1912 to forma section for the study of the History of Medicine. The sectionimmediately became popular, and one of its first actions was to arrangefor the issue of occasional fasciculi dealing with such subjects inmedical history as did not lend themselves readily to discussion. Mr.William Roberts pointed out in 1903 that the iconography of medical menhad not yet received adequate attention, and he published (TheAthenaeum, No. 3960, Sept. 19, 1903, p. 388) an account of theportraits of Dr. William Harvey which was afterwards revised andreissued in Dr. Weir Mitchell’s privately printed Some Memoranda inregard to William Harvey, M.D. (New York, 1907). This account of theportraits of William Harvey was not illustrated, but it showed that manypictures existed. The Council of the Historical Section directed theirSecretaries to obtain photographs of some of the portraits and write ashort account of each, whilst they invited their President tosuperintend the reproductions in such a manner as to enable them to beissued at a moderate cost to those who wished to know how the greatmaster of physiology appeared to his contemporaries. The presentfasciculus is the result. It proves that the undoubted and contemporaryportraits of Harvey are more numerous than was expected, either because‘the honest little Doctor’ liked to have his picture painted, or, as isthe more likely, because he could not resist the importunity of artistswhom he must often have desired to help pecuniarily. Numerous portraitsof gentlemen of the seventeenth century with peaked beards and whitecollars also exist, and some of them are labelled with Harvey’s name. Acomparison with the genuine portraits shows that these spurious ones canbe divided into two groups: those which may have been portraits ofHarvey’s brothers, supposing that a family likeness existed, and thosewhich are clearly not portraits of any member of the Harvey family eventhough they are labelled with William Harvey’s name.
The genuine portraits, as they are seen in this collection, arranged inthe order of apparent age, show that Harvey had a long face, not unlikethat of Charles I, with refined features, and that his expression,always thoughtful, became one of settled melancholy as he grew older.His hands especially seem to have attracted the attention of the betterpainters; wonderfully shapely with long, thin, and nervous fingers, theyseem made for delicate dissection and experimental work. His dress was areflex of his c