SPECIAL INVITE!

WILLIAM HARVEY’S ANATOMICAL THEATER

Are you sitting at home on the weekend with nothing to do?

Are executions of petty criminals beginning to bore you to death?
Are Galen's ideas too mainstream for you? 

Come to William Harvey’s Anatomical Theater: guaranteed to be an ENLIGHTENING experience.

This event is INVITE ONLY to prospective students in the medical field and the upper class. DO NOT INVITE YOUR FRIENDS.

WHAT TO EXPECT

 Do not expect a walk in the park with Shakespeare in this theater.  With his newly discovered theory that "all things, both argument and ocular demonstration, confirm that blood passes through the lungs and heart by the force of the ventricles, and is driven thence and sent forth to all parts of the body. Thus concluding that blood in animals [and humans] is impelled in a circle",  William Harvey will demonstrate that the sole and only end of this newly discovered movement comes from the pulse of the heart.
William Harvey will provide his guests with a fun and interactive learning experience. The theater is a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape. In the center of the theater stands a table; on which the dissections of human or animal bodies will take place. Around the table there will be several circular tiers and railings, where you and other observers can stand and get a good view of the dissection.

WILLIAM HARVEY’S RULES FOR DISSECTION

1.  Show as much in one viewing as can be for instance from the whole belly or from the other part, or those things which are interesting.
2. Point out peculiarities of the particular body and those that are new or but newly discovered.
3.  To supply only by speech what cannot be shown on your own credit and by authority.
4.  Cut up as much as may be in the view of all, that practical skill may be learned together with theatrical knowledge.
5. Review your own and other people’s observation in order to consider carefully your own opinion.

DIVINE SOUL

Harvey believes that the body contains a divine element within it, be it a spirit or the blood itself that works as a hinge joining the divinely created spirit and the sexually reproduced body.  
By applying physic to the study of physiolgy, Harvey reframes the body as a machine, establishing an anatomico-physiological foundation for later Enlightenment.

HIPPOCRATIC OATH

This production is done under the Hippocratic oath.  The Hippocratic Oath is an oath taken by physicians and other healthcare professionals swearing to practice medicine ethnically and honestly. This oath forges a strong bond between the master physicians and his pupils by demanding a “quasi-contractual relationship”.

 The Oath's historical popularity has varied widely over time. Originally it only applied to doctors who trained under  Hippocrates himself. It grew popularity during the Common Era, but was not formally recited by doctors until the Englightenment. The oath itself did not become common until the resurgence of formal medical ethics scholarship and ethic codes after Nazi abuses during the Third Reich. 

ONE TICKET ADMITS ONE. 

Background

William Harvey was born in Folkestone, England on April 1, 1578.

He graduated at age 24 as a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Padua in April of 1602. He then earned his degree at Cambridge University.

He was the first to describe the systematic circulation of blood being pumped to the body by the heart.

In 1604, he joined the College of Physicians and shortly after, in 1607, he accepted a position at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

Harvey was appointed to the office of Lumleian Lecturer in 1615. The purpose of this position was to "spread light" and general knowledge on the subject of anatomy throughout England.

In 1618, he became a physician to James I and in 1632, he became a physician to Charles I.

In 1628, he published “De Motu Cordis”, a treatise on the circulation of blood. He died on June 3, 1657.

Harvey's Predecessor

Galen, also known as Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus.

Galen of Pergamon

Galen was a philosopher who lived from 130-200 CE. His high levels of education helped shape medicine as we see it today.

He studied the human skeleton and the practice of autopsy in Egypt and studied anatomy by the dissection of monkeys and other animals. Galen’s first career as a surgeon was in Rome, where he became a surgeon to the gladiators.

Galen, as a pluralist, dealt with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water and the theories of hot, cold, wet and dry in order to describe the material of mixtures. This was used for drugs in order to counteract the natural fluids of the body. Galen continued his study of biological science research from studying other great philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato.

Galen’s most influential practice was his discovery of the Hippocratic theory involving the four humors: phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile. These four human body fluids needed to be in perfect harmony otherwise the emotional level will be off and the patient will become ill. Sanguine (blood), Choleric (yellow bile), Melancholic (black bile), phlegmatic (phlegm).

·      If there was too much blood the body will be cheerfully optimistic

·      If there is too much yellow bile the body will be bad-tempered or irritable

·      If there is too much black bile the body will be deep, pensive, and sad

·      If there is too much phlegm the patient will be calm and unemotional

William Harvey displaced this theory with the theory of the systematic circulation of blood that is still utilized today.

WebMD Symptoms:

Overly excited: excess blood

Prescribe leeches to reduce amount of blood in the body.
---Side effects: decrease in white blood cells which inhibits ability to fight diseases which can lead to death

Angry/crazy: excess yellow bile

Prescribe hellebore supposed to cure madness. It is a poisonous winter-flowering Eurasian plant of the buttercup family, typically having 5 leaves and large white greenish, purplish flowers.

---Side effects: vertigo, stupor, extreme thirst, feelings of suffocation, swelled tongue and throat, vomiting, eventual death by cardiac arrest

 Prescribe opium: a reddish brown heavy scented addictive drug prepared from the juice of opium poppy. It is used as a narcotic and medicine in analgesic.

---Side effects: inability to feel pain; painlessness

Sad: excess black bile

Prescribe scammony weed (plant of the morning glory family, the dried roots which yielded a strong purgative). Make into a juice to be consumed.

---Side effects: too much juice equals vomiting which can lead to death

Unemotional: excess phlegm

Prescribe Aurum Potabile (drinkable gold) supposed to give you longevity, energy, youth and beaut
---Side effects: neurological disorders, cancer, and susceptible to infections.

Prescribe mercury or quicksilver (liquid form of mercury).

---Side effects: mood changes. Able to quickly change your mood

Other Medical Practitioners during Harvey's Time

During medieval times and through the 1600s it was common for barbers, who were adept with scissors, to apply their knowledge to more dangerous occupations such as surgery. As such, they were known by the simple title “barber-surgeon.” Often working on battlefields, they were also found in cities like London and rarely had much formal training. Additionally, apothecaries were often given the same trust as physicians and regularly prescribed remedies to the sick. Yet, like the barber-surgeons, they had little to no training and could easily kill their patrons with a miscalculated prescription. In May 1616 William Harvey and a number of other physicians begged King Charles I to place heavy restrictions on apothecaries. The King agreed and issued forth a decree limiting them. This included not allowing apothecaries to prescribe anything a physician had not already approved for the patient. Yet, this was a difficult rule to enforce and it was estimated that only 30 out of the 150 apothecaries complied with the new law at the time. Furthermore, nobles continued to have a personal apothecaries in their homes to take care of their family.

The First Form of Dissection

Vivisections

Vivisections were used to study anatomy and physiology. While human cadavers were also dissected, the use of animals for teaching and experimentation was more common. The first vivisections began around 300 BC conducted by Aristotle, as well as Galen. Galen proclaimed that he dissected animals on a daily basis throughout his career to enhance his surgical skills and learn about the human body. It is said that his description of the human body was very misunderstood as he based the description of the uterus based on dogs, the kidneys from his research on pigs, and the brain for his research on cows and goats.

A vivisection being performed on a pig.

There was a theatrical aspect of these vivisections because witnessing the dissection of a human cadaver was a highly desirable event. Large numbers of students would gather to witness a vivisection in order to learn. At this time, it is said that people believed that animals were incapable of feeling pain and, therefore, it was moral and more common for the dissection of animals to occur.

The tools that would be utilized during a vivisection.

Moral Reservations about Vivisections

Although vivisections were allowed in the College of Physicians by nobility, it was still clear that many had their reservations about them. Dissecting live animals did not seem too problematic, but dissecting living humans was always tense. Thus, several rules were created to assuage guilt over them. For one, it was made clear that any performing human vivisections outside the College of Physicians could be subject to a harsh penalty. Then, the number of human vivisections allowed at the College were limited by the kings and queens, themselves. For example, Queen Elizabeth granted them permission to use four criminals a year whereas King Charles I later increased the amount to six. Finally, after the vivisections the bodies were shown respect and had to be given a proper burial. Additionally, the College made their vivisections, particularly on people, very secret by regulating the rooms where they were done and only allowing professionals and royalty to watch.

The Revolutionary New Theories of William Harvey

Harvey's theory being described.

William Harvey is recognized for several medical breakthroughs one of which includes the discovery that blood is pumped through the body with the heart and its arteries, whereas previous scholars thought that the liver produced blood daily and the lungs circulated it. He noted the movement of the right and left ventricles and how they spurred the blood into the arteries. 

Also, under Galen's theories, it was held that the liver produced the body's blood, but Harvey was able to measure the blood capacity of the heart and find how much blood it expelled at any given time. He estimated, then, that 540 pounds of blood were being circulated per day, far too many for the liver to be producing. Then, by isolating veins and recording the one-way nature of the heart's valves, he was able to discover that the veins circulated blood around the body and back to the heart in a circular motion. Galen had also believed that blood passed through the body through the pores, not through the veins, so Harvey's discovery's altered that theory, as well. 

Sadly, despite Harvey's findings, medical practice changed very little during his era. However, many today claim that his discoveries of the cardiovascular system were the most significant medical advancements of the seventeenth century. 

Harvey conversing with Charles I