THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 21 



this country. As to the seventeenth century, it is hard 

 to name four made memorable by the announcement of 

 great discoveries or the publication of famous works ; 

 in the eighteenth century not three, while in the century 

 just completed, though it is replete with extraordinary 

 discoveries, one is hard pressed to name half a dozen 

 years which flash into memory as made ever memorable 

 by great achievements. Of the three most important, 

 anaesthesia, sanitation, and antiseptic surgery, only of 

 the first can the date be fixed, 1846, and that for its 

 practical application. For the other two discoveries, 

 who will settle upon the year in which the greatest 

 advance was made, or one which could be selected for 

 an anniversary in our calendar ? 



There is one dies mirabilis in the history of the 

 College in the history, indeed, of the medical profes- 

 sion of this country, and the circumstances which made 

 it memorable are well known to us. At ten o'clock on 

 a bright spring morning, April 17, 1616, an unusually 

 large company was attracted to the New Anatomical 

 Theatre of the Physicians' College, Amen Street. The 

 second Lumleian Lecture of the annual course, given 

 that year by a new man, had drawn a larger gathering 

 than usual, due in part to the brilliancy of the demon- 

 stration on the previous day, but also it may be because 

 rumours had spread abroad about strange views to be 

 propounded by the lecturer. I do not know if at the 

 College the same stringent rules as to compulsory 

 attendance prevailed as at the Barber Surgeons' Hall. 

 Doubtless not, 1 but the President, and Censors, and 

 Fellows would be there in due array ; and with the help 



1 Mr. William Fleming, the College Bedell, calls my attention 

 to the Statutes of that period. Under penalty of a fine all Fellows 

 and candidates were commanded to attend for at least five years. 



