Page:The Harveian oration, 1893.djvu/67

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43

and tracing the steps by which our present knowledge has been reached.

With regard, for instance, to the physiology of the circulation, it is not only curious but instructive to follow its gradual growth from Galen and Vesalius, Columbus, Caesalpinus and Servetus, to Harvey and Lower and Malpighi, to Hales and Vierordt, to Ludwig, to Chauveau and Marey, to Gaskell, and Roy. The only true scientific method is the historical one. If we only know the results of a science without the steps by which they have been reached, we have indeed its practical use, but lose half its educational value. We are almost in the position of an engineer who knows the conclusions of trigonometry by rote, but is ignorant of the demonstration. I would therefore urge upon Junior Fellows, while still enjoying the prospect rather than the fruition of professional success, to spare some of the time which is unoccupied by work in