Page "William Harvey" Paragraph 55

In terms of his personality, information shows that William Harvey was seen as a "... humorous but extremely precise man ...", how he was often so immersed in his own thoughts that he would often suffer from insomnia ( cured with a simple walk through the house ), and how he was always ready for an open and direct conversation.

He also loved the darkness, for it is said that it was there where "... he could best contemplate ", thus sometimes hiding out in caves.

A heavy drinker of coffee, Harvey would walk out combing his hair every morning full of energy and enthusiastic spirit through the fields.

We have also come to understand Harvey's somewhat unorthodox method of dealing with his gout, here cited completely: "... his ( Harvey's ) cure was thus: he would sit with his legs bare ... put them into a pail of water till he was almost dead with cold, then betake himself to his stove, and so ' twas gone ".

Apart from the already mentioned love of literature, Harvey was also an intense and dedicated observer of birds during his free time: several long and detailed passages of citations could be written delineating his observations in such places as the " Pile of Boulders " ( a small island in Lancashire ), ' Bass Rock ' ( island of the East Coast of Scotland ) and " The Bass " ( another Scottish island ).