Page:The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Wednesday, June 27th, 1877 (IA b22314623).pdf/17

 the Museum, they have disappeared for above a hundred years. A few months ago, in going over the duplicate books which had been set aside, this manuscript was found, probably in all the better preservation from having been so long buried. Allusion is made to these lectures by several writers. Dr. Rolleston, in his Harveian Oration (p. 70), gives all the details that he was able to collect regarding them, and recounts with what diligence they had been searched for. They were also evidently seen by the writer of Harvey's life prefixed to the edition of his works published by the College of Physicians in 1766, but have been mislaid since then. The notes are written in Latin, but the abbreviations and the handwriting are so quaint that no one but a gentleman in the habit of studying manuscripts of the period can decipher them.* Mr. Bond, the Chief of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, has kindly produced a readable transcript of that portion of the lectures which commands our special attention. Possibly this College may

readers, for Dr. Ent, in his epistle dedicatory to the work on Generation, which he edited, says: "As our author writes a hand which no one without practice can easily read (a thing that is com- mon among our men of letters), I have taken some pains to prevent the printer committing any very grave blunders through this." Many of my readers may already be familiar with Harvey's hand- writing through the fac-simile of a letter of his, prefixed to Dr. Aveling's Memorials of Harvey (London, 1875), which fully confirms Dr. Ent's statement, as its authenticity is in its turn corroborated by the MS. lectures, B
 * In his own day, Harvey's writing was evidently a puzzle to his