Editing William Harvey (section)

=== Lumleian lecturer ===

The next important phase of Harvey's life began with his appointment to the office of [[Lumleian lectures|Lumleian lecturer]] on 4 August 1615.<ref>{{cite journal |title=De Motu Cordis: the Lumleian Lecture of 1616: an imagined playlet concerning the discovery of the circulation of the blood by William Harvey. |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=199–204 |pmid=17404345 |pmc=1847732 |year=2007 |last1=Silverman |first1=M. E. |doi=10.1177/014107680710011419 }}</ref> The Lumleian lectureship, founded by [[John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley|Lord Lumley]] and Dr. [[Richard Caldwell]] in 1582, consisted in giving lectures for a period of seven years, with the purpose of "spreading light" and increasing the general knowledge of [[anatomy]] throughout England.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Frank|date=2000|title=Shakespeare's medical knowledge: how did he acquire it?|journal=The Oxfordian, Annual|volume=3|pages=45|via=Gale Cengage Academic OneFile}}</ref>

Harvey began his lectures in April 1616,<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Harvey Anniversary |issue=14 |pages=1524 |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2512771 |journal=JAMA |volume=315 |doi=10.1001/jama.2015.17081 |pmid=27115281 |date=12 April 2016 }}</ref> and also compiled his lecture notes in a notebook.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas Edward |url= |title=William Harvey: A Life in Circulation |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-993169-9 |pages=118 |language=en}}</ref> At this time, at the age of thirty-seven, he was described as "a man of lowest stature, round faced; his eyes small, round, very black and full of spirit; his hair as black as a raven and curling".{{sfn|Power|1897|p=52}} The notes which he used at the time are preserved in the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willis |first1=Robert |title=Modern History Sourcebook: William Harvey (1578–1657): On The Motion Of The Heart And Blood In Animals, 1628 |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1628harvey-blood.asp |website=Fordham University}}</ref>

At the beginning of his lectures, Harvey laid down the canons for his guidance:

#"To show as much as may be at a glance, the whole belly for instance, and afterwards to subdivide the parts according to their positions and relations.
#To point out what is peculiar to the actual body which is being dissected.
#To supply only by speech what cannot be shown on your own credit and by authority.
#To cut up as much as may be in the sight of the audience.
#To enforce the right opinion by remarks drawn far and near, and to illustrate man by the structure of animals.
#Not to praise or dispraise other anatomists, for all did well, and there was some excuse even for those who are in error.
#Not to dispute with others, or attempt to confute them, except by the most obvious retort.
#To state things briefly and plainly, yet not letting anything pass unmentioned which can be seen.
#Not to speak of anything which can be as well explained without the body or can be read at home.
#Not to enter into too much detail, or in too minute dissection, for the time does not permit.
#To serve three courses according to the glass [''i.e.'' allot a definite time to each part of the body]. In the first day's lectures the abdomen, nasty yet recompensed by its infinite variety. In the second the parlour, [''i.e.'' the thorax]. In the third day's lecture the divine banquet of the brain."{{sfn|Power|1897|pp=62–64}}