Harvey and his discovery / by J.M. Da Costa.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Harvey and his discovery / by J.M. Da Costa. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    55/72 (page 49)
    In fact, the whole of Lucrece is full of allusions, and many other passages from the plays might be cited. Now, if these passages mean what they are sometimes held to mean, Shakespeare was aware of the circulation; moreover, he could not have obtained the information from Harvey, even supposing them to have been ac- quainted, of which there is no evidence. He could not have obtained the information, because the verses were written long before Harvey possessed it. If, therefore, we accept them literally, they seem to prove that Shake- speare understood the circulation of the blood in advance of Harvey. Yet this is only in appearance; the lines, even if literally construed, bear a very different interpre- tation. They simply show that Shakespeare was cogni- zant of the pulmonary circulation, at that time partially comprehended, and that he referred to the presumed movement of blood in the veins, also known to the science of the day. But there are no passages which can be twisted to make it clear that he knew anything of the real circulation,—of the circuit of the blood. They cer- tainl}'^, however, prove him to have been as far-seeing a physiologist as any of his age, with the single exception of Harvey.* * As the dates of the passages alluded to are of importance in connection with this inquiry, it may not be without interest to examine into them. Julius Caesar, Collier tells us, was written before 1603; Halliwell, in his Introduction to the play, adduces evidence that it was written in or before 1601; Malone fixes the date at 1607. The earlier dates, most likely the correct ones, were in advance of, or about, the time Harvey returned from