Page:The Harveian Oration1876.djvu/6

 two or three thousand years, and have thus secured what we call immortality. But will Wilham Harvey be admitted into this scanty band? A thousand years hence will there be, in this city, an Harveian orator standing before the great physicians of those days, and proclaiming still the immortal name of the discoverer of the circulation of the blood? It may seem rather too curious thus to endeavour to anticipate the verdict of posterity, but it is only when we put the question in this way that we get the measure with which this discovery must be meted Is it pure gold? does it stand the fire of the assay? will time bring no dimness upon it, nor eat into its substance and transform it into dust? The answer I believe must be that the explanation of the actions of the heart and of the circulation of the blood is not only one of those cardinal discoveries which lie at the very foundation of physiology and medicine, but is from its very nature one of those great landmarks which must remain in the sight of all. The full interpretation of this