36 THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 



Though a professor in the Paris Faculty and a 

 brilliant lecturer, Patin at that time did not occupy such 

 a distinguished position, nor was his opposition of such 

 importance as that of Riolan 'John Riolan, the Son, 

 the most experienced Physician in the Universitie of 

 Paris, the Prince of Dissection of Bodies, and the 

 King's professor, and Dean of Anatomic and of the 

 knowledge of simples, chief physician to the queen- 

 mother of Louis XI I F as he is quaintly, but very truly, 

 described by Harvey. 1 Brought up by his father to 

 regard Hippocrates and Galen as the sources of all 

 wisdom, the intensity of his zeal increased with his 

 years until at last 'to see the physic of Galen kept in 

 good repair ' became the passion of his life. The deep 

 pity of it all is that such mental blindness should have 

 stricken a really great man, for he was a brilliant ana- 

 tomist and teacher, the author of the best anatomical 

 textbook of its day, a man of affairs, profoundly versed 

 in literature, a successful practitioner, and for years the 

 head of the profession in France. 



The opposition of such a man was serious, and natu- 

 rally had a profound influence. Not content with the 

 comparatively brief statement in the Encheiridion, 1648, 

 Riolan published in England the following year his 

 Opuscula Anatomica nova, one very large section of 

 which is taken up with the problem of circulation. It 

 was this probably as much as a present of the Enchei- 

 ridion that induced Harvey to break his long silence 

 and to reply. After a report of a discussion upon a 

 thesis in 1645 and a statement of objections, a most 

 interesting discussion follows of the literature, in which 

 the opinions of various writers are examined, particu- 



1 Title-page of English edition of the Letter. 



