9 



And what shall I say of our greatest Benefactor whose 

 memory we specially commemorate to- day? When I turn to the 

 orations delivered by my predecessors, I find that the history of 

 Harvey's life, his surroundings, his mode of investigating nature, 

 his early studies, classical, dialectical, and physical, his habit of 

 inductive reasoning, the steps leading to his great discovery, the 

 grounds for asserting his rightful claim to be the discoverer, have 

 all been so eloquently discussed and so exhaustively displayed 

 before you, that it would be out of place for me to dilate on any 

 of these themes. Permit me rather to picture before you to-day 

 some of the discoveries which have been made in modern times, in 

 matters connected with the circulation, and more particularly as 

 regards some of the changes in the blood which may be associated 

 with or productive of disease, and thus to indicate some of the 

 additions to that fabric of scientific medicine of which Harvey's 

 great discovery is the corner stone. 



Following upon the labours of Harvey, we note the discoveiy 

 of the capillaries by Malpighi, about 1687, our knowledge thereof 

 improved by Leeuwenhoek in 1729 and then by Hales, Cowper, 

 Haller and Lieberkiihn, and perfected by Prochaska in his publi- 

 cation in 1812. Subsequently we learned how the rhythm of 

 the heart may be interfered with by causes acting through the 

 nervous system, and how the calibre of the minute arteries may 

 be modified through the same agency. Then we have the 

 changes connected with inflammation ; and can we not picture to 

 ourselves with what special interest such an observer as Harvey 

 would have watched the changes which take place in the vessels 

 and the surrounding tissues following upon irritation or in- 

 fl'ammation; and which, by the aid of those appliances with which 

 modern science has furnished us, have been discovered in recent 



