Going round in circles: discovery of the body's circulatory system by William Harvey

Greatness in failure: a look at Leonardo da Vinci and his drawings of the heart

“…As with William Harvey a century later, da Vinci was influenced by the teachings of Galen and Mondino with reference to the workings of the heart and vessels. He is thought to have dissected up to 30 corpses, and, like Harvey, sought to understand afresh what he saw upon dissection, rather than merely using the dissection to prove Galenic theory (Cowan, 2016). Unlike Harvey, however, he is thought never to have witnessed a beating heart in situ, and this may explain the persistence of some error in his descriptions (Keele, 1952).…”

“…Galen's description of what happened to the blood in the heart is fascinating: the heart is seen as a furnace, 'boiling the blood' so that it changes from purple to red as it heats up (Cowan, 2016). Galen imagines some occult, intrinsic heat originating in the heart.…”