Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 24, 1882 - by George Johnson (IA b21517046).pdf/18

14 that those who pretend to find in these writings the true doctrine of the circulation, endeavour to establish their position by giving to some chance expressions a meaning which the context shows could never have been in the mind of their author; while interpreting Cesalpino's vague and contradictory statements by the light of Harvey's researches, they ungratefully turn upon the real discoverer and accuse him of conscious plagiarism. This surely is very like an attempt to pierce the breast of an eagle with an arrow feathered by a plume plucked from his own wing.

If Cesalpino's discovery and demonstration of the course of the blood were so complete and unmistakable as his recent advocates maintain, it is remarkable that his contemporaries and immediate successors, to whom his writings must have been well known, should have remained in ignorance of the true doctrine of the circulation. Professor Scalzi, indeed, in his inaugural address, suggests that Harvey may have learnt the new doctrine of Cesalpino from his famous anatomical teacher Fabricius; but, unfortunately for this. Fu gran ventura per Guglielmo Harvey, che trovandosi dal 1598 al 1602 in Padova allo studio della medicina, potesse