Page:The Harveian oration, 1893.djvu/35

11 story books, nor by the single crucial experiment, never in after ages except by special Certificate to be repeated, which some members of a certain Royal Commission supposed to be the only kind of experiment needed in scientific inquiries.

A perusal of Harvey’s own statements makes it plain, it seems to me, that having gained his knowledge of the anatomy of the heart and of the current hypotheses of its function from his Italian masters, he reasoned thus:—First, that the cardiac valves must be intended for such physiological service as their construction would indicate. He believed that every part of this human microcosm has a meaning; that it is by no chance result of blind forces that an organ is adapted to its end. This great postulate is necessary for scientific progress. If the difficulties of physiology, whether normal or morbid, seem so intricate and insuperable that we are tempted to doubt whether the riddle after all