200 



NATURE 



[June 29, 1893 



was originally destined to be a student of medicine or 

 physic, or whether he was led to it mainly by that which 

 he found in that College, from the help and advantages 

 given to the study of medicine and sciences. Harvey found 

 there — and there alone, he thought, certainly amongst the 

 Colleges of the University — a license for dissection. A 

 license was obtained from the King to dissect in that College 

 the bodies of criminals, and Dr. Venn, in the register of St. 

 Mary's parish, had found records of two who were exe- 

 cuted here in Harvey's time. The register said distinctly 

 "They have been buried here after being anatomised 

 in Caius College. He might add that the bodies were to 

 be interred with great reverence, and the Masters and 

 Fellows had to attend the funerals. From that College 

 Harvey went to Padua, where he had the best learning 

 from the best biological te.ichers of the time. He took 

 the degree of doctor of medicine with the highest honour, 

 and then he returned to the practice of his profession and 

 the teaching of it in the University. Alluding to Harvey's 

 discovery of the circulation of the blood. Sir James said 

 he thought he might venture to say that that was the 

 greatest discovery in biological science ever made 

 by one man. He thought there never had been 

 any one man to whom biology was so indebted as 

 to Harvey for that discovery, and that was in the early 

 part of his life. He supposed they could not now think of 

 what would have been the progress of biology but for 

 that discovery, neither could they form any just estimate 

 of the honour due to Harvey for that discovery, which was 

 to them now so plain, so evident, that one might wonder 

 how it could ever have been doubted, but was then sur- 

 rounded by dilBculties which it seemed impossible ever 

 to overcome. It was marvellous, if one looked back at 

 it, to think what must have been the power of observa- 

 tion, the ingenuity, the constant, resolute industry of the 

 man who could find that out, not only in the face of 

 actual diflficulties of inquiry, but in the face of those who 

 were perfectly satisfied with their own opinions. He 

 worked on and on until he brought out the best result he 

 could obtain. He had shown by his discoveries, which 

 had had even a greater influence on the progress of 

 biological knowledge, the right method of inquiry. He 

 had to find his results in the face of that full and per- 

 fectly-satisfied belief that all truth in such a science as 

 that of medicine could be deduced from general principles 

 then prevalent, and from the physiological doctrines 

 which few men then dared to doubt. Nothing could 

 have proved more than Harvey's results that the way to 

 knowledge in biological science was through continual 

 observation and experiment and recording. That was 

 what Harvey showed, and it had never been forgotten. 

 Again and again Harvey said in his works, and more 

 especially in that admirable introduction to his work " De 

 Generatione," that the way to knowledge was by observ- 

 ing, experimenting, and recording, and not by thinking. 

 The same thought was expressed by John Hunter, who 

 said, " Don't think ; try." Those were words he (Sir 

 James) would venture to say every one pursuing biology 

 might well bear in mind. Both of those men were 

 most earnest and profound thinkers. This could be 

 traced in all their works, but that in which they dis- 

 tinguished themselves from other men of the same 

 calling and the same pursuits was that they tried 

 their thoughts. They tested them by every possible ob- 

 servation and experiment. They thought, and thought, 

 and thought, but they were never satisfied with thinking ; 

 every thought they had was tried by experiment. When 

 they remembered that Harvey was not only the greatest 

 physiologist of the time, but the greatest physician, it was 

 well to look and see as far as they could how much he 

 himself followed that out, and he thought it would be 

 found, unhappily, they had scarcely any record of 

 Harvey's observations in practice. Repeatedly in his 

 works that were published he stated that he intended to 



NO. 1235, VOL. 48] 



publish his medical observations. Now the whole of 

 those, he supposed, were lost, and yet his (the speaker's) 

 brother pointed out there was no certain knowledge at all 

 either of the time or of the manner in which they were 

 lost. Those observations would be of inestimable value 

 if they could be found. They might hope that some ot 

 the younger Caius men would find out where those manu- 

 scripts were. It would be well if the MSS. could be pub- 

 lished in facsimile, or in the same manner as the one 

 done by the College a few years ago, when they at last 

 found Harvey's lectures on anatomy and surgery. He 

 asked them to drink to the memory of Harvey, who had 

 made discoveries surpassing those ever made by any one 

 man, and had showed the true and only sure methods by 

 which biological science could be increased. 



After the toast had been duly honoured the College 

 '' Carmen Caianum " was sung, the words of which were 

 written by the President, Rev. B. H. Drury, and set to 

 stirring music by Mr. C. Wood. An extra verse com- 

 memorative of Harvey and Glisson, also once a member of 

 the College, was introduced into the song for this occasion. 



Dr. Clififord AUbutt (Regius Professor of Physic) pro- 

 posed the toast of " The Guests," and in doing so read a 

 letter which had been received from the rector of Padua 

 University, in which he expressed the pride of that Univer- 

 sity at having been the place where William Harvey had 

 pursued his studies. Dr. AUbutt also referred to the 

 sense of loss which was felt by all present at the death of 

 Sir George Paget, who would, had he lived, have been 

 the man of all others upon whom it would have been 

 fitting that the duty of taking an important part in that 

 celebration should have fallen. 



Sir Andrew Clark responded, and said he desired in 

 the name of his more distinguished fellow guests to give 

 them his grateful thanks for permitting them to be present 

 that evening. 



Prof. Gairdner next proposed " The University," and 

 said that the toast needed nothing on his part to recom- 

 mend it. He could not conceive a greater eulogium 

 upon the University of Cambridge than that it containijd 

 such magnificent representatives of ancient learning as 

 their Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Peile ; and at the same time 

 eminent representatives of what he would venture to call 

 the modern scientific method as the Professor of Medi- 

 cine, Dr. Clifford AUbutt and of Physiology, Prof. Michael 

 Foster. The University was an institution founded upon 

 all that was best in human learning and in human experi- 

 ments, and it will go on and prosper to the end of time. He 

 proposed the health of the University and coupled with it 

 the name of their distinguished Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Peile. 



The Vice-Chancellor, in returning thanks, aUuded to 

 the great development of studies and of buildings in the 

 University during the past thirty years. He was sorry to 

 say that their rapid development had almost caused 

 alarm in certain most important quarters. He read the 

 other day one of the leading newspapers of England, 

 which called attention to their unsatisfied spirit of inno- 

 vation. He thought that that must have reference to 

 some of their most recent developments of the engineer- 

 ing tripos. Yet surely it might have occurred to any one 

 that the sciences of engineering were most closely con- 

 nected with the study of mathematics, which was their 

 chief glory in Cambridge. Possibly, also, it had refer- 

 ence to the development of agricultural science. Well, 

 agricultural science was a very excellent thing. It seemed 

 to him that, after all, some of the greatest discoveries in 

 science had been made, not merely by students or by 

 lecturers, but by men who had been carrying on profes- 

 sional work and working purely with mercantile aims. 

 The duty of the University, he took it, was to encourage 

 those studies as well as others. But there would 

 always be a problem before them. At present the prob- 

 lem would raise the very, very old story— the limited 

 means of the University. The problem was how far 



