"A LIOTIOX AS IT WERE IN A CIRCLE. 3 



It was with the wish to keep green the memory of the bene- 

 factors of tlie Callege that this oration was instituted by Harvey, 

 and not at all with the intention that it should be devoted to 

 his own praise. But Harvey stands out so high above all others, 

 that it is only natural that in the numerous orations which have 

 been yearly given before the College of Physicians, the subject- 

 matter should have been to a great extent confined to a con- 

 sideration of Harvey and his works. On looking over many of these 

 orations, I find that everything that I could say about Harvey, 

 his person, his circumstances, his character, and his works, has 

 already been said so fully and eloquently that I could not add 

 to it any further, nor could I hope to express it even so well. I 

 purpose, therefore, to consider to-day some of the modern de- 

 velopments of Harvey's work, more especially in relation to the- 

 treatment of diseases of the heart and circulation. There is, I 

 think, a certain advantage in this also, inasmuch as one is apt, 

 by considering Harvey's work only as he left it, to overlook the 

 enormous extent to which it now influences our thoughts and 

 actions and thus to comprehend its value very imperfectly. 



As he himself says, " From a small seed springs a mighty 

 tree ; from the minute gemmule or apex of the acorn, how wide 

 does the gnarled oak at length extend his arms, how loftily does 

 he lift his branches to the sky, how deeply do his roots strike 

 down into the ground !"* 



How very minute is the gemmule from which has sprung 

 everything that is definite in medical science, for this gemmule 

 is no other than the idea which Harvey records in these 

 simple words : " I began to think whether there might not be 



A MOTION AS IT WERE IN A CIRCLE."! 



Out of this idea has grown all our knowledge of the processes 

 of human life in health and disease, of the signs and symptoms 

 which indicate disease, of the mode of action of the drugs and 

 appliances which we use, and the proper means of employing 

 them in the cure of disease. In the works that have come down 

 to us we find that Harvey developed his idea physiologically in 

 several directions. He discussed its application to the absorp- 



* The Worlcs of William Karvey, Sjdeuha:n Society's edition, p. 320. 

 t Hid., p. 46. 



