John Ellis
Class of 2025, Johns Hopkins University
Gideon Harvey (1636/7–1702) was a Dutch-born physician educated at Oxford University and later at Leiden University, where he studied surgery, pharmacy, and chemistry in addition to physick. He received further medical training at hospitals in Paris, and came to London around 1659 to practice medicine. Possibly due to his foreign background, Harvey did not join the College of Physicians in England, but he nonetheless had a successful career as a doctor and writer. Indeed, Harvey is perhaps most well-known for his medical texts; over the course of his life, he wrote treatises on diverse ailments such as scurvy, the plague, and the French Pox. Despite not being a surgeon, Harvey used the broad-based education he received at Leiden to author several instructive texts on venereal disease.
Although he was heavily invested in medical theory, Harvey also wrote books for a nonmedical or otherwise inexperienced audience. He complemented the traditional framework of humoral medicine with his own empirical observations and recommendations for at-home remedies. Throughout his works, Harvey emphasized the importance of expertise and encouraged readers to be wary of untrustworthy apothecaries. Some of his most famous works include Little Venus unmask’d unmask’d and The disease of London. His prolific writing and trusted reputation earned Harvey the attention of the royal court, and he became physician to the Tower of London. The income and social status Harvey accrued in this position granted him the security to practice outside the College of Physicians and allowed him to purchase land in Middlesex and Cambridge. Harvey died at his home in Sawley, Middlesex in 1702.
Further Reading:
Wallis, Patrick, “Gideon Harvey”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, January 3 2008, Oxford University Press. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1093/ref:odnb/12519.
Weisser, Olivia, “Concepts of Contagion in Gideon Harvey’s Great Venus Unmasked,” Harvard Library Bulletin, 2021, Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37368753.