244 OX THE NATt Ki: AM> I'UINCIPLES OP 



])raisc and honours which have been heaped upon 

 Harvey's name and memory, his principles of philo- 

 sophy have never been really popular. Nor is this 

 at all inexplicable, when we, on the one hand, con- 

 sider the influence which fashion exercises in encou- 

 rao-innr or discouraging certain lines of investigation ; 



DO O O 



and observe, on the other, the very slight connection 

 between devotion to the science of medicine, and 

 success in its pursuit as a profession. Even the 

 scanty information now possessed on this subject 

 (much of which is but a revival of old opinions) has 

 been chiefly obtained by the labour of Continental 

 physiologists, and more especially of that illustrious 

 school which owns Magendie as its founder. Xor, 

 with the exception of Hales (a clergyman), can any 

 of Harvey's fellow-countrymen be said to have mate- 

 rially contributed to the illustration and extension of 

 his grand principle. And yet what other field of 

 inquiry offers an equal prospect of obtaining brilliant 

 and important results? The nature of the intima it- 

 connection shown by experiments to exist between 

 the circulation of the blood and the manifestation 

 of the higher functions of the nervous system, the 

 dependence of calorification, and of the various puri- 

 fying actions of the body upon the incessant con- 

 tinuance of that motion, these and many other 

 problems, the solution of which would be equally 

 interesting and useful, all call for investigation. 

 And who can take upon him to declare that the laws 

 which regulate those phenomena will for ever remain 

 inaccessible to patient observation, assisted by ex- 

 periment, and conducted by strict, unprejudiced iva- 



