Last year, on the occasion of the tercentenary of William Harvey's death, all manner of official recognition and ceremonies brought praise and eulogy. Many societies have paid homage to his memory in appropriate speech and festival, including the linkage by television and radio of men in distant cities and across the Atlantic. In much of what was said and written there was a mere echoing of what had been said before, or even better, reprinting of it. Special issues of several journals, including the British Medical Journal, the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and the International Record of Medicine, are dedicated to Harvey, and special attention has been given in Circulation, Circulation Research, The Lancet, and many other journals. In the special issue of the British Medical Journal there were reprints of two classical discussions of Harvey and his contribution by Sir William Osler and Sir