Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/33

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THE HARVEIAN ORATION.
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has already been mentioned. At the present day it has entirely changed its character, three lectures being delivered annually by one of the Fellows, and they deal with a variety of subjects, selected by the lecturer himself.

2. Goulstonian Lectures.—In 1632 Dr. Theodore Goulston, a Fellow of the College, left £200 to purchase a rent-charge for the maintenance of a lecture to be delivered annually within the College of Physicians, and with this sum an annual rent of £12 charged on land in Essex was purchased by his widow, and conveyed to the College, July 24th, 1635, in trust. This lectureship was evidently intended to give encouragement and opportunity to the juniors, for it was directed that the lecture should be read by one of the four youngest doctors in physic. It was further directed by Goulston that it should be on two or three or more diseases; and afterwards, by the widow, that the lecture should be read between Michaelmas and Easter, on three days together, both forenoon and afternoon, on some dead body, if possibly it can be procured, which shall then and there be dissected for the diseases treated of, and shall afterwards be buried. This lectureship is now held by one of the four most recently elected Fellows, who may also choose his own subject within certain limits, and he is not expected to procure a dead body for dissection. It is interesting to note to what a high position in the