Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 24, 1882 - by George Johnson (IA b21517046).pdf/14

 versaries could adduce no proof that his affected ignorance of the discovery of Cesalpino was a mere pretence (p. 172). Ceradini quotes the well- known passage in which Harvey expresses his fear lest, through the novelty of his discovery, he should have all mankind for his enemies (Coll. ed., p. 47; Dr. Willis's trans., p. 45); and on this he makes the following comment: With- out doubt by these subterfuges the Englishman designed to usurp for himself the glory of a discoverer.'¹

Harvey's hostile critic asserts that his doc- trine of the general circulation was based almost exclusively on the presence of valves in the veins (p. 275), which had been first discovered, or at any rate more fully demonstrated and described, by Harvey's anatomical master, Fabricius; and Ceradini affirms that this evidence in support of the doctrine of the circulation is all that Harvey

Nessun dubio che con questi sotterfugi l'Inglese mirasse ad usurpare il vanto di scopritore' (p. 175). It is interesting to note that Harvey's fears were not without reason. John Aubrey tells us he had heard him (Harvey) say that after his book on the "circulation of the blood came out, he fell mightily in his practice; 'twas belicred by the vulgar that he was crack-brained, and all the physitians were against him.'-Dr. R. Willis's William Harvey, p. 165. 39