Page:The Harveian oration 1866.djvu/18

 The gain to physiology from such a discovery was great. The right conception of a function so important not only corrected innumerable errors, but laid anew the very foundations of the science of life, establishing a fresh and firmer basis for all subsequent investigations. To form a just estimate of its consequences we should have to sum a long series of steps in the progress of that science. Its indirect influence also was considerable. It did for physiology what had been done by Vesalins and others for the easier subject of anatomy. It shook the dogmas of authority, and showed what brilliant results might be looked for from well-devised experiments and logical reasoning from facts. Moreover, it showed the importance of considering the mechanical arrangements of organs, and so encouraged the idea of explaining the functions of the body on mechanical principles. And out of this came some truth and some error. The influence of the non-medical over the medical sciences has not been in all cases an influence for good.

And, now, if we turn from the influence of Harvey's discovery on physiology, to enquire what' it did for practical medicine, om- first feeling must