Page:The Harveian oration (electronic resource) - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1886 (IA b2041190x).pdf/11

7 looking at the able hands through which the duty of orator has passed, and the eminence in the profession of many present, that I do not approach the undertaking without a dcep sense of the re- sponsibility attaching to it.

The first portion of the duty which has been marked out in such precise terms by the founder of this oration to be performed is to commemorate the benefactions that have fallen into the posses- sion of ‘the College since the last oration was delivered: It is gratifying to me to feel that I do not come empty-handed for the occasion before you.

A. new benefaction, which promises to be as useful as it is munificent, has to be recorded, and it belongs to me to mention the manner in which the College has decided to dispose of a recently acquired increased income derivable from one of its ancient benefactions. My immediate predecessor alluded to the augmentation which the income from the endowment for the Croonian lectureship has re- cently undergone. Dr. Croone, a Fellow of our College in the seventeenth century, left behind him �