Harvey, clinical medicine and the College of Physicians

Abstract

This article deals with the problems of seeing Harvey historically, rather than as a construction seen from the viewpoint of modern medicine. It deals with his programme of work, the expectations of his audience, his intellectual training and the political and religious circumstances of seventeenth century Europe. It shows that at the time the impact of Harvey’s discovery was negative on clinical medicine and its theory, but also shows ways in which that impact was favourable.