Page:The Harveian Oration1876.djvu/5



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On the statue of William Harvey which was erected by his contemporaries of the College of Physicians, and which was burnt in the great fire of London, was an inscription “viro monumentis suis immortali.” In these days, when discovery succeeds discovery so fast that it taxes the memory to remember the discoveries, much more the names of the discoverers, it may be asked. Can we call any memory or any works immortal? Some few names in literature, some few in philosophy, and some among those who have founded or destroyed empires, have echoed down the stream of time for a thousand or may be