Page:The Harveian oration 1903.djvu/15

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THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1903
9

we revere as our special Founder, and also our first President. It was he who provided the first home for the College in his own house in Knightrider Street, where the Fellows continued to meet for nearly a Century (1614) and who also laid the foundations of our Library.

To him succeeded 30 years later, in the Office of President, John Caius, whose name is perpetuated in that of a Cambridge College and who stands in especial honour in this our Fellowship as its munificent and enlightened benefactor. To him we are indebted for the institution of the College Annals, the earlier records of which he collected and wrote out in his own hand with an account in full detail of the College doings subsequent to his own election as a Fellow; and with scarce a break the proceedings of the College have been recorded by successive Registrars to our own days. From Caius also we received a revision of the Statutes, and the silver caduceus, the emblem of the President's office and carried by each one as such since Caius' time.

Also William Gilbert, our President in 1600, who "opened the modern era by treating Magnetism and Electricity on a scientific basis,"[1] and whose fame has recently been commemorated by the formation of a Gilbert Society and the publication of a sumptuous translation of his great work, the work which induced Galileo to turn his mind to the subject. To the College Gilbert bequeathed "his whole Library, globes, instruments, and cabinet of minerals."[2]

Also Dr. Richard Caldwell, greatly distinguished, who

  1. Dr. Larmor, F.R.S. Introductory Address, Section A, British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1900.
  2. For much of the information contained in this section the orator is indebted to the Roll of the College of Physicians, by the late William Munk, M.D., F.R.C.P., Harveian Librarian.