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Harvey, William - 3 dictionary results
Har⋅vey
[hahr-vee] 
vi
–noun
| 1. | William, 1578–1657, English physician: discoverer of the circulation of the blood. |
| 2. | a city in NE Illinois, near Chicago. 35,810. |
| 3. | a male given name: from Germanic words meaning “army” and “battle.” |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| Har·vey
(här'vē) Pronunciation Key
English physician, anatomist, and physiologist who discovered the circulation of blood in the human body (1628). |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
| Harvey
(här'vē) Pronunciation Key
English physician and physiologist who in 1628 demonstrated the function of the heart and the circulation of blood throughout the human body. Our Living Language : In the second century CE, the Greek physician Galen theorized that blood is created in the liver, passes once through the heart, and is then absorbed by bodily tissues. Galen's ideas were widely accepted in European medicine until 1628, when William Harvey published a book describing the circulation of blood throughout the body. Through his observations of human and animal dissections, Harvey saw that blood flows from one side of the heart to the other and that it flows through the lungs and returns to the heart to be pumped elsewhere. There was one missing part of the cycle: How did the blood pumped to distant body tissues get into the veins to be carried back to the heart? As an answer, Harvey offered his own, unproven theory, one that has since been shown to be true: blood passes from small, outlying arteries through tiny vessels called capillaries into the outlying veins. Harvey's views were so controversial at the time that many of his patients left his care, but his work became the basis for all modern research on the heart and blood vessels. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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