Page:The Harveian oration, 1893.djvu/70

46 of research; and if we admit that the crowd of modern literature and the distractions which we fondly imagine to be peculiar to our generation leave small opportunity for the extension and cultivation of ancient learning; and if the fascination of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the prejudices of our patients, both gentle and simple, still make post-mortem inspections less common and systematic than they should be— whatever, I say, may be our shortcomings in these or in other respects—your Harveian Orator may most honestly congratulate the College and the profession upon the concord and mutual esteem which has happily marked our history from the days of Linacre to those of Harvey, from the days of Arbuthnot and Garth to those of Mead and Freind, from the days of Fothergill and Heberden to those of Matthew Baillie, of Babington and of Sir Thomas Watson. Nor is it here alone that we may congratulate ourselves upon the