Page:The Harveian Oration1876.djvu/25

 he says: “Not finding it possible that this (that is, the quantity of blood) could he supplied by the juices of the ingested aliment, without the veins, on the one hand, becoming drained, and the arteries, on the other, getting ruptured through the excessive charge of blood, unless the blood should somehow find its way from the arteries into the veins, I began to think whether there might not be A motion, as IT WERE, IN A CIRCLE.”

Here then, at last, was his great discovery made. I entirely agree with the Harveian orator of last year. Dr. Guy, that Boyle’s story of Harvey being led to his discovery by considering the action of the venous valves, is incorrect; that would have been merely a lucky guess from one fact, not an induction from a great many. His next proceeding is most characteristic of Harvey’s character of mind. To most of us, I think, if the movement of the blood in a circle from arteries to veins had occurred, the conclusion would at once be that it so completely accorded with all facts