Page:The Harveian Oration1876.djvu/28

 He had completed a work on the generation of insects, the loss of which during the Civil Wars caused him great regret, and this and his remarks on the interest Charles I. took in his researches on the generation of deer, show he must have been busy with the subject. Very early during his connexion with the Court he had obtained leave from Charles I. to dissect the does killed in the hunts of which the king was so fond, and he interested Charles himself in the subject.

During the occupation of Oxford, where he remained for some time, he continued his observations on the chick, and in 1650, when he was seventy-two years old. Sir George Ent tells us he was still engaged with the subject. In that year Sir George Ent obtained from him the MS. of the treatise on Generation we now have. He can hardly have studied the subject for less than thirty years. It appears, indeed, to have had for him the same fascination it has had for all physiologists who have attempted this difficult problem. Harvey