440 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



Sect. 3. Reception of the Discovery. 



WITHOUT dwelling long upon the circumstances of 

 the general reception of this doctrine, we may 

 observe that it was, for the most part, readily ac- 

 cepted by his countrymen, but that abroad it had 

 to encounter considerable opposition. Although, as 

 we have seen, his predecessors had approached so 

 near to the discovery, men's minds were by no 

 means as yet prepared to receive it. Several phy- 

 sicians denied the truth of the opinion, among 

 whom the most eminent was Riolan, professor at 

 the College de France. Other writers, as usually 

 happens in the case of great discoveries, asserted 

 that the doctrine was ancient, and even that it was 

 known to Hippocrates. Harvey defended his opinion 

 with spirit and temper; yet he appears to have 

 retained a lively recollection of the disagreeable 

 nature of the struggles in which he was thus in- 

 volved. At a later period of his life, Ent 15 , one of 

 his admirers, who visited him, and urged him to 

 publish the researches on generation, on which he 

 had long been engaged, gives this account of the 

 manner in which he received the proposal : " And 

 would you then advise me, (smilingly replies the 

 doctor,) to quit the tranquillity of this haven, wherein 

 I now calmly spend my days, and again commit 

 myself to the unfaithful ocean ? You are not igno- 

 rant how great troubles my lucubrations, formerly 



15 Epist. Dedic. to Anatom. Exercit. 



