[From Dubovrgdiev: Aphorism Prognostici Hippocrates, Romae, 1659.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Seri es , Volu me IV March , 1932 Number 2 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DR. WILLAM HARVEY* By SIR WILMOT HERRINGHAM, K.C.M.G., C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P. HAMPSTEAD, ENGLAND Part i 1. Harvey fr om 1578-1600 Dean and Chapter. There were fifty ILLIAMW Harvey boys on the foundation, and others was the son of were allowed to come who were not on it, of whom Harvey was one, Thomas Harvey, yeoman, of Folkc- but all were required to have learned tone. Thomas, who reading, writing and the rudiments of as born at Folke- grammar, previously.! This, there- stone in 1549, mar- fore, was not Harvey’s first school; ried as his first wife, Juliana Jenkin, he must have been taught in a small who dying left him a daughter, Julian. grammar school, of which there were a great number in the country, either He married in January, 1577, his sec- ond wife, Joan Hawke, or Halkc, by at Folkestone itself or elsewhere. whom he had seven sons, called by Ful- Canterbury held the position of a ler “a week of sons,” and two daugh- modern public school. It had six ters. William, the eldest child, was born forms, which read the usual Latin authors in order: Cato, Aesop, Ter- at Folkestone, on April 1, 1578. ence, Horace and Cicero, with one or Nothing is known of William Har- vey’s childhood. At ten years of age two moderns who wrote in Latin, he was admitted to the King’s School such as Mantuanus and Erasmus. at Canterbury, a very old foundation f In a list of King’s Scholars of 1591, the which had hitherto been governed only list of Harvey’s time that is extant, his name does not appear (see Woodruff and by the Archbishop, but had been Cape. History of the King’s School Canter- taken over by Henry vm, enlarged, bury, 1908). He must therefore have been a re-endowed, and placed under the “commoner,” a scholar not on the foundation. *In the time of Harvey the year began officially on March 25. Thus March 24, 1650, is March 24, 1651, according to our present calendar. Dates have been corrected to accord with the present method. The upper forms wrote Latin prose and preferred letters (Hterae human- and Latin verse, and, as usual then, iores) to logic, the religious because the boys were ordered to speak noth- it revived the old pagan names, and adored the old pagan beauties. In spite of encouragement by Fox at Corpus, it had pretty well perished ing but Latin and Greek whether at out of Oxford, in consequence of the work or play. The statutes, given to feud between the “Greeks” and the the school in 1541, are still extant. “Trojans,” and at Cambridge the Although Greek is mentioned as an first Greek chair was set up by the alternative, and the head master is orders of Legh, the visitor sent by supposed to be learned in Latin and Thomas Cromwell in 1535. A quarrel Greek, no Greek authors are given about pronunciation between 1540 in the curriculum, and we may take and 1550 probably did not improve it that in 1541 it was not taught. matters. Smith and Cheke following Grocyn and Linacre had taught it in Erasmus, maintained that the modern Oxford at the end of the 15th century, Greeks had lost the old pronunciation, and Erasmus was invited to Cam- and in spite of the opposition of Gar- bridge in 1516. But Greek was the diner the Chancellor, and of Caius, mark of the beast, the new spirit in who had learned from Greeks in learning to which all the authorities Italy, the pronunciation we now use were opposed, the educational because won the day. The pronunciation of it attacked the old scholastic teaching, Latin as if it were English also began about the middle of the 16th century. Commons for the boys at Canter- It was not until the Marian refugees, bury were rated at 10 d. a week. returning with the accession of Eliza- The schools closed for three weeks beth, brought a new reverence for Greek as one of the Biblical languages, that it gained a secure position. Backed by the strong Calvinist propa- ganda many of the grammar schools began to teach Greek, and some Hebrew. This movement had had plenty of time to grow by 1588, when Harvey went to a public school, and we may take it as certain that, when he went to Cambridge six years later, he could not only read, write, and talk Latin, but also had a working knowledge of Greek. Latin was then the universal language, and every school taught it colloquially. Mon- taigne it may be remembered was not allowed to speak anything else until he was six. From school time-tables and stat- utes, especially from that of Eton, which have been preserved, we know something of public school life at that in the summer, when all boys went time. Boys got up at 5; had prayers home. But at Christmas and Easter, at 6, and worked from 6 to 9. At 9 though they had ten days or so breakfast, probably bread and beer. without lessons, boys did not go home From 9.45 to 11 school again. At 11, unless they lived nearby. Travelling dinner. From 1 to 5 school again. At was difficult in those days. Though 5, supper, and bedtime at 8. Their there do not seem to have been any stomachs must have been very empty, regular half-holidays in the week, and their heads very tired by 9 Mr. Leach (from whose “Schools of o’clock, and it was a foolish plan to Mediaeval England” I have taken put off breakfast so late when dinner the preceding details) calculates that was so early. But the interval from owing to Church feasts they must 11 to 1 must have given them time have had a whole or a half-holiday for a game of some kind. almost every week. Each of the The prefect system was in full greater saints provided a “whole swing, though the prefects (Custodes) Remedy” (remedium) when the pres- were chiefly spies to report misdeeds ent writer was at Winchester. to the masters, and the flogging was It may be added that the rules for most brutal and continual. Ascham, getting up were much more severe in the “Scholemaster” (1570), was for schoolboys and undergraduates one of the first to advocate teaching (see above) than for the servants of by kindness. a country gentleman like John Haring- ton, who were only required to be out who received a stipend from the of bed by 6 a .m . in summer, and college funds. 7 a .m . in winter.1 P. tertii ordinis were the Common- Harvey entered at Cains in May, ers, who received nothing. 1593. His certificate of entry is still 5. The Sizars, who performed cer- preserved there and runs as follows: tain menial duties for the Fellows, waited on them, and were fed on Gul. Harvie, filius Thomae Harvie what remained after the Fellows had yeoman, Cantianus ex oppido Folkeston, dined. educatus in ludo literario Cantuarensi, All Pensioners paid for their annos natus 16, admissus est Pensionarius minor Com. Scholar, ultimo die Maii Commons. The Scholars had a room 1593 sub tutela Mgri Geo. Estey, CoIIegii or part of a room and College tuition Socii, qui pro eo fidejubet. Solvit pro hoc free, at least this is provided in the ingressu suo in Collegium iijs. iiijd. foundation of the Matthew Parker William Harvey, son of Thomas Harvey Scholarship; the Commoners paid for yeoman, from the town of Folkestone, in rooms, tuition and commons. the county of Kent, educated at Canter- “Com. Scholar.” The usual form bury School, in his 16th year, has been was “in Commeatum Scholarium,” admitted as Pensionarius minor to the which is what the previous biogra- Scholars’ mess on the last day of May phers print. But the exact words in 1593, under the tutorship of Master the present instance are as they are [Magister] Geo. Estey, Fellow of the given here. The preposition may have College, who goes surety for him. He been omitted in error; if not, it is the pays for this his entrance into the College three shillings and fourpence. dative case, which is possible. “Sub tutela etc.” Every under- A few notes may be added. graduate was allotted to a tutor who Previous biographers, Lawrence, was responsible for his debts to the Willis and Power, by placing the College (fidejubet), and also for the comma wrongly before instead of after supervision of his education and con- the word yeoman, have made William duct. The tutor was selected with some the yeoman instead of his father. care and was often either a country Dr. Venn2 in a valuable note on the neighbor or a relation (Venn). (For “Status of Students in Elizabethan details respecting Estey see p.i 13.) times” tells us that they were then “Solvit 3/qd.” The entrance fee divided into five classes. was 6/8d. for P. majores, 3/qd. for 1. Pensionarii majores, Fellow com- P. minores, by the Statutes of Cains. moners, who were generally younger, Cains required of scholars that they were richer, dined at the Fellows’ should write decently, should be able table, and seldom took a degree. to sing, should know grammar (Latin) 2-4. Pensionarii minores primi, se- and Greek and that they should be cundi and tertii ordinis.