James Primrose

The first published opposition to Harvey's doctrines was that of James Primrose. The son of a Reformist Scot, Primrose was brought up in Bordeaux. Younger than Harvey, he took his MD, at Montpellier, in 1617. He had also studied with Riolan in Paris. He chose to incorporate at Oxford – in 1629 – and was admitted as a licentiate to the College of Physicians later in the same year, Harvey being one of the examiners. He seems to have been an ambitious man, and it was not long before he had persuaded the king to allow him to give a public lecture on medicine. The embarrassed college put a stop to it, claiming that Primrose (still a licentiate) was not qualified. It may be that his book against Harvey (it appeared in 1630) was also conceived as a way of publicising himself. Historians have been uniformly negative about Primrose's writings, either because of aspects like this of his personality or because he appears to have been so wilfully blind to the truth. But for us Primrose is interesting as one of those who was not convinced by Harvey's research and presentation: his natural philosophy. A study that seeks to explore the fate of Harvey's doctrine – and in this chapter we are concerned with its early fortuna – rejections are as important as modifications, misunderstandings and acceptances.

Primrose heard some anatomy lectures ‘as a new member’ of the college. These must have been either the ‘extraordinary’ lectures of the college, given for the last time in December 1629, by Helkiah Crooke, or Harvey's ‘ordinary’ lectures, completed in the college by 26 February 1630.