In 2028 it is 400 years since Harvey published his groundbreaking work De motu cordis et sanguinis in animali.
He was the first to realise that blood was not produced in the liver and absorbed in target organs but instead that the blood circulates from arteries to the organs and through capillaries via the veins back to the heart.
His work is considered a major breakthrough in physiology and is the foundation of our understanding of cardiac function and the role of blood circulation to the present day.
Over 400 years many eminent researchers, physiologists, physicians and physicists have built upon his work expanding our knowledge of blood circulation in human health and disease. Almost all the positions put forward in Harvey’s work remain unchallenged and valid in the present day.
However, Harvey may have been incorrect in his conviction that arteries only passively underwent the pressure wave from the heart and that all energy bringing the blood into motion was derived from the heart. Modern physiology shows that early during each heartbeat a short-lived contraction occurs in the smooth muscle layers of the arterial tree. This short-lived contraction amplifies and distributes the pressure from the heart contraction over the many branches of the arterial tree ensuring that blood is brought into motion throughout the body.