Page:The Harveian oration 1903.djvu/21

 whether in furthering the material prosperity of the College or adding to its reputation, deserve to be remembered as our benefactors. To commemorate, however, all such "by name and what in particular they have done for the benefit of the College," as I am enjoined to do by Harvey, would be beyond my powers, as I fear it would exceed your inclination to listen, But I should ill perform my duty in this connection did I not "exhort others to imitate these benefactors, and to contribute their endeavours for the advancement of the Society."

In attempting to comprehend the full significance of Harvey's great work on the circulation of the blood, it must be recollected that he was first and foremost an anatomist, and that although his discovery and its proof were the result of observation of the actual movements of the heart and vessels and of experiment on the living animal, it was by his previous knowledge of anatomy that he was enabled clearly to understand what he observed, and the perfection and, indeed, in great measure, the feasibility of his experiments, depended on his acquaintance with the structure of the organism he was investigating. And although the name of Harvey is for ever linked with a great and far-reaching physiological truth, one not only great in itself,