Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/18

 Harvey married the daughter of, who had been physician to Queen Elizabeth, but had no family to embarrass him in his work.

As regards Harvey's subsequent active career, no doubt he exhibited from the first an ardent love for, and devotion to, his professional work. He appears not to have confined himself to medicine, but also to have attended cases of surgery and midwifery, and even to have performed operations. For a number of years his practice was probably among the poor, taking great pains without any prospect of pecuniary reward. Subsequently under favouring circumstances it rapidly increased, and became extensive and remunerative, many of the most distinguished men of the age, including Lord Chancellor Bacon and, Earl of Arundel, having been among his patients. For certain obvious reasons, however, he does not seem to have had a lengthy harvest in this respect. It has been frequently affirmed, apparently on Harvey's own authority, that after his work on the "Circulation of the Blood" came out, and as the direct result of his new doctrines, he fell mightily in his practice. The statement has, however, been strenuously disputed, and other explanations have been brought forward to account for the fact. Anyhow he must have had a lucrative practice for a time, before the Civil War broke out, during which he appears to have accumulated a fair amount of