Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 24, 1882 - by George Johnson (IA b21517046).pdf/13

9 more complete demonstration of Cesalpino's claims which he had been able to give in the first edition of his historical treatise.

I now proceed to quote, as fully as time permits, the chief statements and arguments upon which Dr. Ceradini relies to establish his position that the Italian Cesalpino was, and that our English Harvey was not, the actual discoverer of the circulation of the blood, and I will endeavour to estimate at its true value the judgment of Harvey's critic and accuser. Dr. Ceradini's statement with regard to Harvey is to this effect- that during the four years from 1598 to 1602, which Harvey spent as a student at Padua, he must have become acquainted with Cesalpino's writings, some of which had been published about thirty years before; that in these writings Harvey must have seen that the true doctrine of the circulation of the blood was clearly set forth and completely demonstrated; that Harvey designedly delayed the publication of his work 'De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis' until 1628, twenty-five years after the death of Cesalpino, and vine years after the death of Fabricius, when his ad- 1 Ceradini, p. 171, &c.