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H received all the honour it deserved. On the continent of Europe it was received with less favour, but neither in England nor abroad did any one suggest that the discovery was to be found in other writers. The ‘Exercitationes et animadversiones in librum Gulielmi Harvei de Motu Cordis et Circulatione Sanguinis’ of Dr. James Primrose appeared in 1630, and the ‘Lapis Lydius de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis’ of Æmylius Parisanus at Venice in 1635; both are mere controversial writings of no scientific interest. Hoffman of Nuremberg and others followed in opposition, in letters, lectures, and treatises, but before his death the great discovery of Harvey was accepted throughout the medical world. The modern controversy (, Harveian Oration, 1882;, William Harvey, a History of the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, 1878) as to whether the discovery was taken from some previous author is sufficiently refuted by the opinion of the opponents of his views in his own time, who agreed in denouncing the doctrine as new; by the laborious method of gradual demonstration obvious in his book and lectures; and, lastly, by the complete absence of lucid demonstration of the action of the heart and course of the blood in Cæsalpinus, Servetus, and all others who have been suggested as possible originals of the discovery. It remains to this day the greatest of the discoveries of physiology, and its whole honour belongs to Harvey. He was a regular attendant at the comitia of the College of Physicians, and took an active part in the proceedings. On 9 Dec. 1629, at the president's house, he examined Dr. James Primrose [q. v.] for admission as a candidate, and passed him. On 22 Dec. 1630 he subscribed 20l. to the fund for purchasing a site, and on 26 March 1632 drew up new rules for the college library.

On 21 Jan. 1630 he applied to the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital for leave of absence, in accordance with the king's command, to travel with the Duke of Lennox, and in July he started on the journey. On 23 Sept. he was in Paris (, Memorials of Harvey), but was in London 8 Oct. and 22 Dec. 1630. He afterwards visited Blois, Saumur, and Bordeaux. In February 1632 he was in Spain, and probably visited Venice before his return to England. In a letter to Lord Dorchester, preserved in the Bodleian Library (Clarendon Papers, 2076), he asks that none be put into his place of physician to the household during his absence, and describes how the countries were so wretched ‘that by the way we could scarcely see a dogg, crow, kite, raven, or any bird or anything to anatomise, only sum few miserable people, the reliques of the war and the plague, where famine had made anatomies before I came.’ In May 1633 he obtained leave from the governors of St. Bartholomew's (MS. Minute Book of St. Bartholomew's Hospital) to go to Scotland with the king. While there in June he visited the Bass Rock, and an account by him of its gannets is extant (, British Physicians, p. 42). On 5 Oct. 1633 he applied to Sir Robert Ducie, then president of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to summon a meeting of the governors, the surgeons, and the apothecary, so that he might lay before them ‘some particulars concerning the good of the poore of this howse, and reformacon of some orders conceaved to be in this howse.’

On 15 Oct. the meeting took place, and Dr. Andrewes was appointed a full physician, so as to give Harvey more liberty. Sixteen regulations drawn up by Harvey were then discussed, and were all agreed to except one requiring the surgeons to declare their treatment whenever the physician desired. Their general purport is that absolutely incurable cases are not to be admitted, and that the surgeons, apothecary, and matron are to discharge all their duties decently and in person. In 1634 four Lancashire women had been accused of witchcraft (, Memorials of Harvey), and were sent to London. Harvey was desired by the Earl of Manchester (29 June 1634) to arrange with Baker and William Clowes (1582–1648) [q. v.], the king's surgeons, for their examination. On 2 July he superintended their physical examination by ten midwives and seven surgeons, and found that there was nothing unnatural in their bodies, and so they were pardoned. On 4 July 1634 he gave a tanned human skin to the College of Physicians ‘for a monument to be reserved in the college.’ On the same day, by the president's direction, he made a speech to the apothecaries persuading them to conformity to the college orders (MS. Annales). In 1635, on 17 Nov., an impudent barber-surgeon named William Tellett, on being called to account (, Records of the Barber-Surgeons) for not recording the death of a maidservant whom he was attending, declared that her death was due to Dr. Harvey's physic. On 16 Nov., Queen Henrietta Maria's birthday, he examined post mortem the body of Thomas Parr, a Shropshire labourer, stated to have lived 152 years and nine months. His report of the post-mortem was published in 1669 by Dr. Bett (De Ortu et Natura Sanguinis). On 7 April 1636 he left England again, in attendance on Thomas Howard, earl