case, highly interesting, which he either himself made at Padua, or procured from that celebrated school, and very probably exhibited during his course of lectures, were not very long since presented to the College of Physicians by the earl of Winchelsea-a direct descendant of lord chancellor Nottingham, who married Harvey's niece. They consist of six tables or boards, upon which are nerves and bloodvessels, carefully dissected out of the body; in one of them the semilunar valves of the aorta are distinctly to be seen. These valves placed at the origin of the arteries, must, doubtless, together with the valves of the veins, have furnished the most striking and conclusive arguments in favour of the true system.

The talent and discoveries of Harvey soon recommended him to the notice of the court. From a letter of James I., dated February 3, 1623, it appears that he had then for some time been physician extraordinary to his majesty. In 1682, he was appointed physician to Charles I., who always treated him with much regard, and was an interested spectator of many of his experiments. About

this time, he appears to have accompanied the earl of Arundel and Surrey, lord high marshal of England, as his physician, in his embassy to the emperor. Aubrey states, that one of his excellency's attendants on this occasion told him that, in his journey to Vienna, Harvey would always be making excursions into the

woods, in order to investigate "strange trees and plants, earths," etc., and sometimes was in danger of being lost, "so that," adds he, "my lord ambassador would be really angry with him, for there was not only danger of thieves, but also of wild beasts." In the following year, Harvey accompanied the king in his visit to his northern dominions, and when the civil war broke out, he still followed the fortunes of his royal master, attended him when he left London, and was present at the battle of Edge Hill. On this occasion, the prince, afterwards Charles II., and the duke of York, were committed to his charge. While the fight was going on, he had not a mind to forego pursuits more congenial to his taste; accordingly, he withdrew with the young princes under a hedge, and took out of his pocket a book, which he began to read. He had not, however, pursued his studies long, before a cannonball grazed on the ground near him, which soon compelled him to remove his station. After an arduous struggle, both sides claimed the victory; but one result of the battle was favourable to the inclinations and designs of Harvey, The king continued his march, and took possession of Oxford, the only town in his dominions which was altogether at his devotion. Hither, with the rest of the royal household, his physician retired, and here he had abundant leisure to pursue his favourite studies; although under the disadvantage of having lost many most valuable notes of experiments, which he

had previously made; for, at the beginning of the rebellion, his lodgings at Whitehall had been plundered, and many papers containing curious observations upon the dissections of animals had totally disappeared. This was a loss which he never ceased to lament, saying, that "for love or money he could neither retrieve or obtain them." He remained at Oxford about three years, during which time -in 1645-he was made warden of Merton College, by the king's mandate. It is related of him, that, during his stay there, he was in habits of intimacy with a kindred mind, Dr. Bathurst, of Trinity College. This gentleman kept a hen to hatch eggs in his chamber, which they opened daily to understand the whole process and results of incubation. Eggs," says Harvey, "were a cheap merchandise, and were at hand at all times and in all places; and it was an easy matter to observe out of them what are the first evident and distinct marks of generation; what progress nature makes in formation, and with what wonderful providence she governs the whole work." This was a favourite study with Harvey, and forms the subject of his other great work, second only in importance to his "Treatise on the Motion of the Heart and the Blood." Dr. Charles Scarborough, afterwards knighted by Charles I., was another associate in whose society he at this time much delighted; except that he considered him in danger, under the contagion of those troublous times, of neglecting his medical

studies for the more brilliant profession of arms. To check his military ardour, he accommodated the young doctor with a lodging in his own apartment, saying, "Prithee leave off thy gunning, and stay here; I will bring thee into practice." But in the year 1646, Charles was persuaded to put himself in the power of the Scottish army at Newark, and orders were issued for the surrender of Oxford. Consequently Harvey was obliged to relinquish his short-lived appointment of warden to Merton College, and to return to London, where for some time he lived with his brother Eliab, a rich merchant, who resided opposite to St. Mildred, in the Poultry. How long he remained with his brother does not appear, but it is certain, that, not very long after this period, he withdrew very much from the world, and passed his time in retirement, in a house which he possessed at Combe, in Surrey. Here he had the advantages of a good air and a pleasing prospect, but to indulge a whim he had of delighting in being in the dark, he caused caves to be made in the earth, in which, in summer time, he was accustomed to meditate. In this seclusion he was visited, in the year 1651, by his friend Dr. Ent. "I found him," says Ent, "in his retirement, not far from town, with a sprightly and cheerful countenance, investigating, like Democritus, the nature of things. Asking if all were well with him,' How can that be,' he replied, 'when the state is so agitated with storms, and I, myself, am yet in the open

sea! And indeed,' added he, 'were not my mind solaced by my studies, and the recollection of the observations I have formerly made, there is nothing which should make me desirous of a longer continuance. But, thus employed, this obscure life, and vacation from public cares, which disquiet other minds, is the medicine of mine."" Ent goes on to relate a philosophical conversation between them, the result of which was the determination on the part of Harvey to publish his second great work just alluded to.

In the year 1653, Harvey presented the College of Physicians with a library and museum, erected in a munificent manner, entirely at his own expense. It is described as a noble edifice of Roman architecture (of rustic work, with Corinthian pilasters,) and consisted of an elegantly furnished convocation room, or parlour, below, and a library, filled with choice books and surgical instruments, above. And, we are told, it was erected in the garden of the College of Physicians, at that time situated in Amen Corner. This garden, it seems, was of an irregular form, but extended as far as the Old Bailey to the west, and towards the south reached the church of St. Martin, Ludgate Hill. In the following year, he was appointed president of the college, an office which he declined to accept on account of his advanced age and infirmities, but he testified his regard for its welfare still farther, by giving up his paternal estate of £56 per annum for its