[In Context] William Harvey, neurologist?

History can be put to any number of uses. One of the more common of these is the construction of a story that links present day developments to events in the past, seeking legitimacy for the present by enrolling historical figures in an ancestral lineage that inexorably, and inevitably, leads to the present. This storytelling is often achieved by picking out statements from past writings that seem, in some way, to be ahead of their time or otherwise prescient.