Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 24, 1882 - by George Johnson (IA b21517046).pdf/17

13 I will venture to say that if Dr. Ceradini had been a contemporary of Harvey he would have received from the object of his attack no other notice than that contained in the following sentence: 'Detractors, censurers (momos), and writers defiled with abuse, as I have resolved with myself never to read them, satisfied that nothing solid or excellent, nothing but malediction was to be expected from them, so have I held them still less worthy of an answer' (Coll. ed., p. 109; Dr. Willis's trans., p. 109).

In my endeavour to refute these monstrous charges against the greatest ornament of our College, and one of the greatest benefactors of the human race, I shall make no attempt to emulate the quite inimitable good taste and style of the Genoese Professor; but I shall endeavour, and I trust successfully, to show that, however diligent may have been Harvey's study of Cesalpino's writings, he could never have obtained from them that which is not to be found therein, viz., a knowledge of the circulation of the blood; and quali oggi ancora a dispetto della verità e della giustizia lo riten- gono, o fingono ritenerlo scopritore della circulazione del sangue, forse, per non privarsi, come argutamente osservava Barzelotti, del pretesto di festeggiarne la memoria inter pocula' (pp. 298-9).