Young John Riddington
Vesalius. 2003 Jun;9(1):3-8.
The history of medicine has conventionally been studied by research into prose medical texts, which provide an index of the depth of the professional knowledge available to the contemporary physician, but examination of poetry gives a measure of the diffusion of this knowledge into the laity. William Harvey's monumental discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628 is now acknowledged as a revolutionary milestone in the history of medicine. It was met however with initial rejection by the majority of his colleagues, and it was not until over twenty years later that Harvey and his discoveries start to be mentioned in poetry. It is interesting to note that the eventual acclaim for his work might well have been based on its correspondence with the rain cycle! In the second half of the century, medical poets start to pay tribute to Harvey's contribution, and a number of his colleagues wrote eulogies to him and his work.
传统上，医学史是通过对散文体医学文本的研究来探究的，这些文本提供了当代医生所掌握的专业知识深度的索引，但对诗歌的审视则能衡量这种知识向普通大众的传播程度。威廉·哈维在1628年对血液循环的重大发现，如今被公认为医学史上的一个革命性里程碑。然而，他的发现最初遭到了大多数同行的拒绝，直到二十多年后，哈维和他的发现才开始在诗歌中被提及。有趣的是，最终对他的工作的赞誉很可能是基于其与雨水循环的对应关系！在该世纪后半叶，医学诗人开始赞颂哈维的贡献，他的一些同行也为他及其工作撰写了颂词。
