THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 37 



larly those of Cartesius, Conringius, Walaeus, and 

 Plempius. 



It is quite possible that the second Disquisition of 

 Harvey to Riolan, published with the first in duodecimo 

 form at Cambridge in 1649, was brought out by Riolan's 

 latter publication, though it is not directly referred to. 

 Little did Harvey appreciate that his old friend was both 

 blind and deaf incapable of seeing obvious facts. It was 

 not a question of being conversant with anatomy or of 

 having had experience, on both of which points Harvey 

 dwells at length. Riolan knew his anatomy as well as, 

 or better, than any man of his generation. It was not 

 that he would not but he that could not see the truth 

 which was staring him in the face. As Reynaud 1 

 mentions, an occasional thesis (Fagon, 1663 ; Mattot, 

 1665) supporting the circulation did slip through the 

 Faculty : but the official recognition in France did not 

 come until 1673, when Louis XIV founded a special 

 Chair of Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes for the 

 propagation of the new discoveries. 



The satire of Moliere and the Arret Burlesque of 

 Boileau completed the discomfiture of the ' anticircula- 

 teurs', but it had taken nearly half a century to overcome 

 the opposition of those who saw in the new doctrines 

 the complete destruction of the ancient system of 

 medicine. 



IV. 



Even when full grown in the conscious stage Truth 

 may remain sterile without influence or progress on any 

 aspects of human activity. One of the most remarkable 



1 Les Medecins an Temps de Moliere, 1863. 



