Page:The Harveian Oration1876.djvu/24

 of the blood, it may seem strange that Harvey, having solved the mystery of the heart’s action and of its valves, being certain that the blood poured out by the aorta and pulmonary artery, and flowed in by the vena cava and pulmonary veins, should not have come at once to the idea of the circulation. But there were, perhaps, two causes which held him back. We must remember that there were no microscopes to demonstrate the channel of communication between arteries and veins; and of course he had no true conception of the immense capillary system. Then, even with a mind of such a class, it is impossible to put aside the influence of previous teaching. The power of the general opinion must impress every man, and lead him to see difficulties which are perhaps unreal. Harvey had very soon dismissed the absurd notion that there were invisible pores in the septum of the heart; but he appears to have been seriously hampered by the Galenic doctrine of the blood being supplied at once by the food. But at length