43 



Water-newt in 1683, twenty-six years after the death of 

 Harvey. And thus the circulation of the Wood was first 

 discovered by an Englishman who never saw that circula- 

 tion, and first seen by another of our countrymen upwards 

 of half a century after that discovery. 



Independently of the leading fact of the circulation, 

 Harvey's observations on the properties of the blood, and 

 on the development of the vertebrate embryo, were so im- 

 portant and in advance of the knowledge of his time, as to 

 be alone sufficient to vindicate the high character of British 

 physiology at that period. But, as with other great men, 

 his reputation rests almost entirely on his one greatest 

 work, which thus eclipses his very valuable, but com- 

 paratively, smaller labours ; just as his illustrious con- 

 temporary, Milton, is known rather by his wonderful epic 

 than by those beautiful pieces which coidd only be called 

 "minor" among his own works. 



And now Harvey seems to be almost forgotten. We see 

 little of his name even in the most comprehensive systems 

 of animal physiology, either in this country or on the Con- 

 tinent. So apt are we to be uiigriteful, forgetting the 

 Creator in the Creation. And yet, besides his great 

 discoveries, he was the first physiologist that gave a 

 systematic demonstration of the truth of the declaration of 

 the inspired writer of the Pentateuch— that " The Blood is 

 the Life." Nothing at the time could be more exact and 

 convincing, or even now more beautiful, than the series of 

 observations and experiments by which Harvey finally 

 established this great truth on a scientific basis. And now, 

 like all immutable truth, once plainly displayed and proved, 

 it is ours evermore. 



The whole tenor of our observations on the corpuscles of 

 the blood is a very remarkable accumulation of evidence in 

 support of Harvey's doctrine. These corpuscles are truly 

 living organisms, and have functions to perform of the very 

 first importance in the vegetative or organic life of the 

 animal ; one and the same function in the same and each 



