William Harvey

William Harvey (April 1, 1578 - June 3, 1657) was a medical doctor who is credited with first correctly describing, in exact detail, the properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart (It should be noted, however, that many of the discoveries he made had already been observed by Ibn Nafis). This developed the ideas of René Descartes who in his Description of the Human Body said that the arteries and veins were pipes and carried nourishment round the body. Many believe he discovered and extended early Muslim medicine especially the work of Ibn Nafis, who had laid out the principles and major arteries and veins in the 13th century.

Writings

• 1628 Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
• 1651 De Generatione
• 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. included Harvey in his list of The Ten Most Influential People of the Second Millennium in the World Almanac & Book of Facts.