Education for motherhood: advice for mothers in twentieth-century Canada

While the study of Harvey's natural philosophy, in particular the analysis of the anatomy lectures and of De motu cordis, is insightful and persuasive, the section devoted to philosophy teaching in Cambridge when Harvey was a student is somewhat cursory and it is not clear why French decided to base his investigation on John Case's Ancilla, which was published in 1599-when Harvey had already moved to Padua-and on Magirus's textbook, which appeared in 1608. The book is handsomely illustrated with an intelligent choice of images, but unfortunately it is marred by some irksome mistakes in the spelling of Latin and Greek titles. Although William Harvey's natural philosophy does not deal with Harvey's theory of generation, it stands out as a major contribution to the understanding of William Harvey and his r6le in seventeenth-century medicine and natural philosophy.