October 25, 1894] 



NA TURE 



62- 



summer. During the whole period of 50 year?, the summer 

 falls have been deficient in 32 years, and in excels in 18 years ; 

 but the amounts in excess are much larger than the amounts in 

 defect. The driest summer was 680 inches in 1870, and this 

 was followed by 7'39 inches during the summer of last year, 

 while the wettest summer was 22 03 inches in 1879. 



The sunshine, it will be seen, was very largely deficient ; and 

 this was the principal feature of the period, the sun being 

 screened by cloud far more than usual throughout the summer. 

 The smaller amount of sunshine at Greenwich in comparison 

 with Westminster is very pronounced. 



The following table gives various elements in connection with 

 the weather for the several districts of the United Kingdom, the 

 results being for the six months, April to September, or a period 

 of 26 weeks. 



The frequency of rain is in excess of the average, except in 

 parts of Scotland, and the amount of rain is in excess, except 

 over the northern portion of the kingdom and in the Midland 

 Counties, the total rainfall for the summer in the latter district 

 being two inches short of the average. 



The sunshine was generally deficient, although in the north 

 of Scotland there was an excess of nearly 100 hours. The 

 deficiency during the summer amounted to 1S6 hours in the 

 Channel Islands, 141 hours in the east of England, and ng 

 hours in the south of England. Chas. Hardinc;. 



ON MODERN DE VELOPMENTS OF HAR VE VS 

 WORK.^ 



'X'HI.S annual meeting in memory of Harvey is usually -sso- 

 ciated with feelings of pleasure and happiness, for it was 

 intended by its immortal founder to commemorate the bene- 

 factors of the College and to encourage good fellowship 

 amongst us. 



Such commemoration of those who have benefited the College 

 in the past, although it, necessarily, recalls many who have 

 passed away, is, notwithstanding, on ordinary occasions 

 pleasant instead of painful, because the feeling of loss through 

 their death is completely overpowered by the recollection of the 

 good they have done in their lifetime. Today the case is very 

 different, for the first thought that must needs occur to every 

 one present here is that on this occasion last year our late 

 President showed for the first time what seemed to be imperfect 

 fulfilment of his duty to the College by being late in his attend- 

 ance at the meeting. Perhaps nothing else could have shown 

 more clearly his deep concern for the welfare of the College, and 

 his thorough devotion of every faculty of mind and body to its 

 interests, than the fact that no duty, no pleasure, and no press 

 of occupation could tempt him to leave one iota of his work in 

 the College undone. The only thing that did keep him back 

 was the hand of Death, which, although at the last meeting he 

 and we knew it not, was already laid upon him. Though his 

 death was less happy than that of the great Harvey, inasmuch 

 as he lingered on for days instead of hours after he was first 

 struck down, yet their deaths were alike in this respect that, 

 up to the time of the fatal attack, each was in the full possession 

 of his faculties, each was in the enjoyment of his life. Like 

 Radcliffe and Mead, like Halford and Baillie, and like many 

 other distinguished Fellows of this College, the greatness of Clark 



^ The Harveian Oration, delivered at the Roy.ll College of • Physicians, 

 on October i3, by Dr. T. Lauder Brunton, F.R.S. 



NO. 1304, VOL. 50] 



is to be estimated not by the published works which he has left 

 behind, but by the influence he exerted on his contemporaries. 

 For the very estimation in which his professional skill was held, 

 led to his whole time being taken up in giving advice, and 

 prevented him from having the leisure to work out or record 

 the results of the pathological and clinical observations which 

 both his youthful publications and his later career showed nira 

 to be specially fitted to make. I might say very much more 

 about him, but it has already been said much better than I 

 could possibly do it by yourself, Mr. President, in your annual 

 address, and in the eloquent and heart-stirring words which 

 you addressed to the College on the occasion of your taking 

 the presidential chair rendered vacant by the death of Sir 

 Andrew Clark. 



But while we are saddened to-day by the death of our late Pre- 

 sident, we hope to be gladdened by the presence amongst us again 

 of one whom we all reverence not only as a former President of 

 this College, but as one of the greatest leaders of clinical medicine 

 in this century. Sir William Jenner. Like Haivey, Sir William 

 Jenner is honoured by his College, by his country, by his 

 Sovereign, and by the world at large. In times of trial and 

 danger the lives of the Royal children were committed to the 

 keeping of Harvey by his King ; and to-day the care not only of 

 her own life, but of that of her nearest and dearest, is com- 

 mitted to Sir William Jenner by his Sovereign, in the full and 

 well-grounded assurance that in no other hands could they be 

 more safe. The great clinician, Graves, wished to have as his 

 epitaph "He fed fevers"; but Jenner has advanced much 

 beyond Graves, and, by showing us how to feed the different 

 kinds of fevers, has saved thousands of valuable lives. Today 

 this College is acknowledging his right to tank with Sydenham, 

 Heberden, Bright, and Garrod, by bestowirg upon him the 

 Moxon medal for clinical research. In numbering Sir Wil!iam 

 amongst its medallists, the College honours itself as well as 

 him, and in acknowledging the great services he has rendeied, 

 it is, on this occasion, .acting as the mouthpiece of the medical 

 profession, not only in this country, but in the world at large. 



It was with the wish to keep green the memory ot the 

 benefactors of the College 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 ex- 

 tent, confined to a consideration of Harvey and his work.=. On 

 looking over many of these orations, I find that everything 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 anything further, nor could 

 I hope to express it even so well. I purpose, therefore, to con- 

 sider to-day some of the modern developments of Harvey's 

 work, more especially in relation to the Irealment 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 10 

 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 lilt 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 motion 

 as it were in a circle." 



Out of this idea has grown all our knowledge of the proces.=es 

 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 physio- 

 logically in several directions. He discussed its application to 

 the absorption and distribution of nourishment ihr.iugh the 

 body, the mixing of blood from various parts, the maintenance 

 and distribution of animal heat, and excretion through the 

 kidneys. How far he developed it in the direction of pathology 

 and therapeutics we do not know, as the results of his labours 

 1 ' ' The Works of \V. Harvey," Sydenham Society's Edition, p. 320. 



