SOME ESSEX DOCTORS.
85
On 3 February, 1618, he was appointed Physician extraordinary
to King James I., and later (1630) to Charles I. He became M.D.
Oxford, 7 December, 1642, Warden of Merton College, Oxford
1645, and elected President of the Royal College of Physicians,
London, 1654. Six years elapsed from his first series of Lumleian
lectures, probably spent in experimenting and confirming the in-
formation then first made partly public, before there was issued,
in 1621, his
Anatomical Treatise on the Movement of the
Heart and Blood in Animals, by
William Harvey the Englishman,
Physician to the King and Professor of Anatomy
in the London College of Physicians.
The book emanated from the press of William Fitzer of
Frankfort in Germany. As was only to be expected, the publica-
tion of Harvey's discovery aroused a great deal of discussion
and some opposition, but his views were gradually accepted;
his supporting arguments were logical and what was then
regarded as new and startling is now a matter of commonplace
knowledge and acceptance.
On 3 June, 1657, full of years, William Harvey died at his
brother Eliab's house at Roehampton, the body being removed
to Cockaine House, probably situated in Broad Street, where it
lay until 26th June, when, attended by the Fellows of the
College of Physicians in their gowns, the procession started for
Hempstead. The body was "lapt in lead" like a mummy case,
without a coffin, the inscription on his breast in raised letters
reading:—
Doctor
William Harvey
deceased the 3
of June 1657.
aged 79 years.
Aubrey says he was at the funeral and helped to carry him
into the vault. Here in the outer vault the body rested until
St. Luke's Day, 1883, 226 years! In 1847 Sir Benjamin
Ward Richardson inspected the vault and reported the leaden
shell in a very bad state, but nothing was done until after the
fall of the church tower on 28 Jan. 1882, when the shell was
again inspected and found to be perishing rapidly. A formal