Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/23

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THE HARVEIAN ORATION.
19

which the heart protruded, and who was demonstrated by Harvey to the King, must always be remembered as an interesting event, from more than one point of view. He took him "so that His Majesty might with his own eyes behold this wonderful case," this "man alive and well," in whom he might, "without detriment to the individual, observe the movement of his heart and with his proper hand even touch the ventricles as they contracted." Having done so, Harvey says: "His most excellent Majesty, as well as myself, acknowledged that the heart was without sense of touch, for the youth never knew when we touched his heart except by the sight or the sensation he had through the external integument." We can well imagine what delight this demonstration would have afforded to Harvey.

Harvey went with the King and Court to Oxford, where he was everywhere handsomely received and entertained; and not only was the honorary degree of Doctor of Physic conferred upon him, but in 1645 he was elected Warden of Merton College, resigning his charge, however, in the following year, after the surrender of Oxford, and returning to London. He then, being sixty-eight years old, retired from active life, resigning his appointments, relinquishing the cares of practice, and spending his later days with one or other of his brothers in learned retirement, but not in indolence. Harvey was fond