The Mansion of Happiness by Jill Lepore Read Free Book Online Page A

appear like a small
frogge:
having a
broad body
, a
wide mouth
, and his
armes
and
leggs
newly shot forth, like the young
buds
of
flowers.
” And there was more:
    Another
humane Conception
I saw (which was about fifty dayes standing) wherein was an
egge
, as large as an
Hen-egg
, or
Turkey-egg.
The
foetus
was of the longitude of a
large Bean
, with a very great
head
, which was over-looked by the
Occiput
, as by a
crest;
the
Brain
it self was in substance like
Coagulated milk;
and instead of a
solid scull
, there was a
     kind of
Leather-membrane
, which was in some parts like a gristle, distributed from the
fore-head
, to the
Roots
of the
Nose.
The
Face
appeared like a
Dogs snout.
Without both
Ears
, and
Nose.
Yet was the
rough Artery
, which descends into the
Lungs
, and the first
rudiment
of the
Yard
, visible. The two
deaf-ears
of the
Heart
, appeared like two
black
     eyes.
18
    Harvey’s descriptions are marvelous. A fetus was like a frog, a flower bud, a turkey egg, a large bean, something like milk, covered with leather, with a snout like a dog’s. Still, while the human fetuses, like the spectacle of deer embryos floating in egg-shaped sacs as clear as glass, were wonderful, what Harvey was really looking for was an egg.
    The famed circulator of the lesser world considered it a fallacy to believe, as most anatomists did, that different sorts of animals derived from different things: birds from eggs; vermin from worms; men from seeds. No, he insisted, they all came from eggs, even if, in some creatures, those eggs are incubated inside and, in others, out. He knew that this claim ran “counter to the common received tenets.” In fact, it bordered on anatomical heresy.
     “An egg,” he believed, turning prevailing wisdom on its head, “is the Common Original of All Animals.” 19
    He didn’t expect everyone to agree with him. At the time, all sorts of people were challenging ancient knowledge of the natural world and challenging, too, the very nature of knowledge, and even its limits. What could be known was what could be investigated, demonstrated, and explained. 20 Harvey’s theory of circulation
     (which, like his theory of generation, happens to have been right) did not gain easy or ready acceptance, partly because no one, not even Harvey, could explain what circulation was
for.
Harvey told Aubrey, “Twas beleeved by the vulgar that he was crack-brained.” 21
    Anticipating that his idea about eggs would be still more controversial, he was reluctant to publish his study of generation. And he never got around to publishing another book, which was to be called
The Loves, Lusts, and Sexual Acts of Animals.
22 Not until the end of 1648 was he persuaded to prepare his treatise for publication. He was, by then, an
     old man, in considerable pain, suffering from gout, and burdened with disappointment. His wife had died. England was at war with itself. In 1649, while Harvey worked on his manuscript, Charles was beheaded, leaving the future of the monarchy uncertain. For a time, Harvey was banished from London. In a portrait taken to serve as an illustration for his new book, Harvey, a dying royalist, looked so miserable that, in the end, the likeness was left out. Then Harvey, who “believed
     it lawful to put an end to his life when tired of it,” tried to kill himself by taking an overdose of laudanum. He failed. 23
    Harvey’s
De Generatione animalium
was published, in Latin, in 1651. It was to be his lasting legacy, his own act of generation. A dedicatory poem noted at once Harvey’s intellectual fecundity, his childlessness—“Thy
Brain
hath
Issue
, though thy
Loins
have none”—and the parentless state of England: “Let fraile
Succession
be the Vulgar care; / Great
Generation’s
selfe is now
thy
Heire.
” 24
    This analogy—between a theory of generation and a hereditary monarchy—was not uncommon. The state has been thought of as a body for a long time; in English, the phrase “body politic”