Page:The Harveian oration, 1893.djvu/41

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

17


The “way of experiment,” in the strict sense of the word, has been hitherto most successfully applied to normal physiology. The successors of Harvey were not Sydenham, Radcliffe, Arbuthnot, Garth, Meade, Freind and Heberden, but Lower, Mayow, Hales, Vierordt, Ludwig and Chauveau. Pathology as an experimental science is still in its infancy, but the infancy is that of Hercules, and bids fair to strangle such dire pests as anthrax, cholera, tetanus and hydrophobia.

(d) Before quitting this part of my subject, I would fain correct a popular misconception that Harvey was a neglected genius—that his contemporaries, his professional brethren, and in particular this ancient College, refused to listen to his new notions, ridiculed his discoveries, and spoiled his practice. Whether, as his fame grew his practice diminished, we cannot tell.[1] If so,


  1. Aubrey says so, but Aubrey was a gossip.