Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th 1887 (IA b30475958).pdf/26

 from the veriest editio princeps possible of the first lectures, fulfil the precept to “make these dry bones live,” to give the vivifying force of character, fancy, and originality to the general facts of anatomy. Since then two hundred and seventy-one years have run their course, and still the sacred fire of thought and genius burns in them undimmed by time.

There yet remains one part, perhaps the most important, of my prescribed task to be performed, and that is to draw a practical conclusion from the essentially physical and mechanical character of Harvey’s great discovery. That he himself fully knew this has been already shown in his own words; it is also by his division of anatomy into three parts, philosophica, medica, and mechanica. Now at the present time investigation and research is abundantly carried on in the pathological, physiological and therapeutical aspects of medicine, but the physical or mechanical side is somewhat neglected. For hundreds of ardent questioners of Nature who are labouring with the microscope, in the biological and the bacteriological