Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/393

Rh he fell mightily in his practice; 'twas believed by the vulgar that he was crack-brained, and all the physicians were against him." Harvey lived, however, to see his doctrine generally accepted. But such are the vicissitudes of time, that in our day an attempt has been made to deprive him of the title of discoverer of the circulation, and give it to an Italian physician, Cesalpino, because it has been found that a few words of what he wrote can be construed into suggesting that a conception of the circulation existed in his mind. Most ably and successfully have my predecessors in the delivery of this oration. Sir Edward Sieveking and Dr.George Johnson, combated the claim that has been put forward on behalf of Cesalpino, and maintained the position of Harvey.

Science prepares the ground for the exercise of art. The one—science—is concerned with knowledge as knowledge; the other, with the application of it to a practical end. Our art—our raison d'être as members of the medical profession—is to apply the knowledge of medical science to the prevention of, cure or mitigation of, and alleviation of the sufferings from disease—to secure, in fact, for man as natural a passage through life as happens to be attainable. We can not prevent death. Lord Bacon, in his essay "De Morte," said:

True, it is as natural to die as to be born; and Nature's laws must be complied with. Our aim is to avert premature death. A certain power, given to us at starting upon our existence, carries us on, under exposure to the proper conditions or influences for keeping this power going. But, in the exercise of its action, although for a while it shows no signs of a failing tendency, yet assuredly it progresses toward exhaustion and ultimate extinction. Accompanying, and doubtless dependent on, the declining power, and assisting in leading to its becoming extinguished, there is an advancing deterioration of the material organism in which the power is manifested. Such is what is natural; but many circumstances contribute to avert the natural, the ordinary course being run. The power given to start with may not be equal to the standard, and the issue of generation may, in consequence, present itself under a weak and ill-developed form, easily falling a victim to influences that there ought to be strength enough to resist. There may be a taint in the power derived by generation from the parents—something transmitted by inheritance, which may give rise to a tendency to the development of some structural deviation from the natural state, or to the performance of one or other functional operation of life, in a manner that does not conform with what may be said to be strictly natural. It is a law of Nature for the offspring, more or less closely, to assume the likeness of the parent, and likeness in the shape of what is wrong may be assumed as well as in the shape of what is right.