How did William Harvey estimate the amount of blood pumped by the heart?

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William Harvey estimated the volume of blood pumped by the heart by calculating the capacity of the ventricles, the efficiency with which they expelled blood, and the number of heartbeats per minute.1

By using these values, Harvey demonstrated that the heart pumped approximately 0.5–1 litre of blood per minute. He purposefully employed conservative estimates to strengthen his argument, showing that the total volume of blood passing through the heart in a short period far exceeded what the body could possibly produce or consume under the prevailing medical theories of the time. This quantitative evidence was central to his conclusion that blood must circulate through the body in a closed system rather than being continuously created and consumed.12