Exhibition and Lecture: Ceaseless motion: William Harvey's experiments in circulation

Royal College of Physicians, 

11 St Andrews Place, 

Regent's Park, 

London NW1 4LE

19 January 2018 to 26 July 2018

Library, Archive and Museum
Telephone: +44 (0)20 3075 1543
Email: history@rcplondon.ac.uk

Opening January 2018, a new exhibition coinciding with the Royal College of Physicians' (RCP's) 500th anniversary exploring the life, work and legacy of revolutionary anatomist William Harvey – the physician who revealed the secrets of circulation.

The 'Ceaseless motion: William Harvey's experiments in circulation' exhibition runs from 19 January to 26 July 2018, and is open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.

William Harvey (1578–1657) was an anatomist and physician with an insatiable curiosity about the inner workings of all living creatures. Harvey lived through an extraordinary age of scientific revolution, to which he would contribute with his own discovery on the heart and blood circulation.

Within his London home, Harvey conducted countless experiments and observed the beating hearts of many animals, including dogs, eels, crows and even wasps. As an anatomist, he was able to dissect the bodies of hanged men, in the anatomy theatre at the Royal College of Physicians.

It is absolutely necessary to conclude that the blood is in a state of ceaseless motion; that this is the function which the heart performs by means of its pulse; and that this is the sole and only end of the motion and contraction of the heart. William Harvey, 1628 

Oil on canvas portrait of William Harvey by unknown artist, c.1650. (detail) 

In 1628, after 10 years of painstaking solitary research, Harvey at last published his discovery in a book, known as De motu cordis. His idea, that blood is pumped around the body by the heart in a state of ceaseless motion, proved highly controversial to some, challenging 1,500 years of established scientific and medical belief.

Harvey encouraged his fellow physicians ‘to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment’. His legacy of curiosity, research and discovery has had a lasting impact on the practice and science of medicine. This exhibition places William Harvey at the heart of the RCP as it celebrates its 500th anniversary.

#WilliamHarvey

William Harvey's demonstration rod. Whalebone and silver c.1616

Exhibition launch
Join us on Thursday 18 January to celebrate the opening of the first exhibition in the RCP's 500th anniversary year with a lecture by Professor Andrew Cunningham on the life and legacy of William Harvey. The lecture is free to attend but booking is essential.
Book via Eventbrite

Visiting information
The exhibition will be open from 19 January to 26 July 2018, Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm.
Opening times may vary – check the RCP visiting page for closure days before your visit.

Museum lates
New for 2018, the RCP museum including the 'Ceaseless motion' exhibition will be open until 8pm on the first Thursday of the month. No booking required, free museum and exhibition entry.

Forthcoming RCP museum lates:
Thursday 1 February 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 1 March 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 3 May 2018, 5–8pm
Thursday 7 June 2018, 5–8pm.

Exhibition team and contributors

Exhibition team: Kristin Hussey, Matthew Wood, Pamela Forde, Natalie Craven and Katie Birkwood.

Exhibition contributors: National Portrait Gallery, Royal College of Surgeons, Science Museum, British Cardiovascular Society, Worcester College, University of Oxford and Wellcome Collection.

Special thanks to: Chocolate Films, Spectrum Drama, Professor Ludmilla Jordanova and Professor Andrew Cunningham.

For all media enquiries please contact Discover Medical London

Details
Price to attend: Free
Contact us

Blood, Tears, Sweat: Corporeality in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds

12 September 2015, The University of Western Australia

A public lecture by Professor Anthony Bale (Birkbeck, London) will precede the conference on the evening of 11 September 2015.

The ‘material turn’ has increasingly drawn the attention of scholars interested in the art, history, literatures, and cultures of pre-modern Europe. This one-day conference will explore aspects of embodiment and corporeality in medieval and early modern worlds, both within Europe and between European and non-European cultures. We expect the conference to focus on analysing the interactions, meanings, and symbolism of three key bodily substances: blood, sweat, and tears. Existing scholarship has laid the foundation for work on bodies and disciplines, gendered bodies, medieval and early modern anatomy, the bodies of saints, and the body of Christ, but fruitful new lines of enquiry still wait to be investigated. Papers that probe the boundaries and intersections between the cultural history of violence, medical humanities, and theories and practices of affectivity are especially welcome.

The convenors of the UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies & Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group 21st Annual Conference invite proposals for twenty-minute papers or ninety-minute panels on the following themes:

• cultural exchanges and conflict, particularly their material dimensions and repercussions as meetings and mixings of bodies and bloods;
• social, theological, ethnic, and physiological definitions of bodies and bloods;
• the formation of metaphorical bodies through affective discourses and discourses of violence;
• boundaries, bodily integrity, dismemberment, and contagion;
• somatic expressions of emotion (the force of tears, sweat and blood as tangible emotion);
• intersections between medical theories and practices relating to humours and effluvia.

Submissions for individual papers should include a paper title, a c.300-word abstract, participant’s name, affiliation (if any), email address, and audio/visual requirements. Submissions for panels should include a panel title and brief description, the name and affiliation of the panel chair (if one is being provided), paper titles, 300-word abstracts, participants’ names, affiliations and contact details for individual papers within the panel, and audio/visual requirements.

Please email submissions to Dr Joanne McEwan joanne.mcewan@uwa.edu.au by 31 July 2015. **Deadline Extended**