Lyon

Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium quibus accedunt quaedam De Partu: de Membranis ac humoribus Uteri & de Conceptione. First edition

ref. 51-6330 — Amstelodami:apud Joannem Ravesteynium 1651. . 12mo. 7 x 12.5cm. Full contemporary vellum binding ivory color. Ribbed spine decorated with gilt. Frontispiece 26 388 3 pp. for the Table of Contents. Engraved frontispiece showing Jupiter seated on a pedestal opening an egg to release all creation.Renowned physician and scientist William Harvey is best known for his accurate description of how blood circulates through the body. While his published work on the circulation of blood is considered the most important of his academic life Harvey also made significant contributions to embryology with the publication of his book Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium in 1651. In this book he established several theories that would set the stage for modern embryology and addressed many embryological issues including conception embryogenesis and spontaneous generation. In this famous collection of observations on embryology and generation Harvey formulates “the first fundamentally new theory of generation since antiquity” by “shifting the focus to the egg itself as the primary generative agent.” The fruit of a lifetime of experience the treatise contradicts traditional Aristotelian views on generation by asserting that all life develops epigenetically either literally in an egg or according to the analogy of the egg. This principle has had great importance in the history of embryology and led to the search for the mammalian ovum.OOCLC Number / Unique Identifier:560965412.Keynes no. 35. Amstelodami,:apud Joannem Ravesteynium, 1651. hardcover