Page:The Harveian oration, 1875 (IA b22314611).pdf/35

 uterus of the doe in the early stages of conception, and the punctum saliens beating “beautifully distinct” in the sun’s light; and once also to the King and Queen what he describes as “ a most agreeable natural spectacle ” derived from the same source. When he comes across a most curious specimen of a perfect egg within a perfect egg, he forthwith makes the King partaker of his delight. And when people tell His Serene Majesty King Charles of a certain young nobleman who, in consequence of a fracture of the ribs of the left side, had come to have a large opening there, and a sort of sac, within which, as had been supposed, the lung protruded, Harvey is sent on an errand of inspection; and having discovered that it was not the lung but the heart that had been thus strangely exposed to sight and touch, Harvey instead of taking to the King a verbal answer, takes the young man himself, “ that His Majesty might with his own eyes behold this wonderful case,”—this “man alive and well ” in whom he might, “ without detriment to the individual, observe the movement of the heart, and with his proper hand even touch the ventricles as they contracted.” Having done so, “His Most Excellent Majesty, as well as myself, ac