Did William Harvey treat John Donne?
That question has been nagging at me since I heard on the radio that Harvey had been one of the King’s Physicians. The Dictionary of National Biography confirms that the appointment was made in 1618 & continued under Charles I after 1625.
Thus covering the year when John Donne fell ill with relapsing fever for which he was treated by a gallery of doctors, including the King’s own physician. Treatments included cordial, physick, bleeding, purging & the application of pigeons to the feet.
Donne eventually recovered &, while still convalescent, wrote his Meditations, his thoughts & reflections on the experience. From which we learn that no man is an island & that the bell tolls for thee.
There has been academic interest in the question of whether the two men met & were each influenced intellectually by the other, but so far I have found no mention of whether the involvement might have been more urgent & intimate than the merely intellectual.
