Poetical allusions to the circulation of blood up to the end of the seventeenth century.

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.